The New Reality
by Shockra
Summary: Fan Request. Anna Ford was doing well at the base she was stationed at but when things go pear shaped, she finds an ally in the most unlikely of people. (MerlexOC)
1. Chapter 1

A soft whimpering followed by a wet tongue licking her fingers, brought Annabelle Ford reluctantly to full wakefulness. When she didn't immediately jump out of her cot, Juno, her dog, leapt into her bed and started licking her face. Anna thrashed around for a second, to get away from the assault of dog saliva, before finally rolling out of her cot.

"I'm awake!" Anna said as she wiped the saliva from her face.

Juno looked at the door, then let out a deep throaty growl. Frowning, Anna grabbed her military jacket then topped it with her Kevlar vest before grabbing her hunting knife and assault rifle. She quickly strapped on Juno's armor before putting her ear to the door and listening carefully. Just as she did, the bases alarm came on, screeching loudly as red lights came on.

"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!" The computerized female voice came over the intercom.

In this day and age, that could mean anything. Ever since the dead had risen up, the line between who was the enemy and who was your ally, had be come blurred. Having an intruder could mean some raiders had attacked and successfully penetrated into the naval base but that was highly unlikely, they just weren't smart enough or well enough equipped to attack something so large and so well defended. More likely, someone had been bit, didn't report it and died in their room and somehow managed to escape to cause havoc. It had happened before, during the initial months but a year had past, and Anna liked to think people had become smart enough but fear did strange things to people.

Anna cracked the door, then sighed as she slowly closed it again to take a deep breath. She hated it when she was wrong. Wandering down her hall was five of the undead staggering towards the nearest speaker as two others stood by one of the rotating red lamps reaching up towards it hungrily.

After collecting herself, Anna opened the door once more and stepped into the hall, plunged her blade into the first walker that wandered in her path as she made for the exit. Just as she rounded the corner, into the main hall, Anna and Juno skidded to a stop. They were now completely surrounded by the undead, as the ones who'd been by her bedroom had followed her and now twenty walkers clogged her other two options.

Juno ran to a closed door and started scratching at it frantically. Anna decided to trust her dog and kicked the door open. She rushed inside then shut the door behind her, using first a chair to hold the door shut before pushing the big heavy desk against it. Juno had made a good call, coming into this room. It was an office on the exterior of the building close to the exit, but they were still on the second floor.

Anna looked out of the window and winced, below her a large herd of walkers wandered the Naval yard, most of them wearing Navy uniforms. Anna turned to the smaller hutch where the phone with the internal line and a row of pictures, sat. She picked up the handset for the phone, then dialed the number for security. After the third ring, someone picked up.

"Hello?" A deep masculine voice answered.

"This is Senior Petty Officer Ford. What the hell is going on?" Anna growled into the phone.

The man let out a relieved sigh. "Someone is still alive! I'm not completely sure what happened. It happened fast. One minute one of the guards is going nuts then the next thing I know, the whole compound is swarming with the undead."

"Why wasn't the alarm not sounded sooner?" Anna asked irritably. "I was asleep and had no idea what was happening! By the time the alarm had gone off, they we're already down my hall! If it wasn't for my dog, I'd have never gotten out!"

"Commander Grainer ordered me not to. He didn't want to whip the herd into a frenzy…" The man on the other end said. "But I couldn't wait any longer, things just kept getting worse."

"And where's the Commander now?" Anna asked, her expression becoming dark. She knew Grainer a little too well and he was a selfish son of a bitch.

"I…I think he escaped…" The man replied his anger lowering his voice to a growl.

"Son of a…" Anna also growled. "Can you just activate the alarms on one side of the base? Maybe we can lure them off to one side and give us a chance to escape out the other?"

There was a long pause, so long that Anna thought the man had hung up, but he finally did respond. "Yes…yes I can."

"Alright, here's the plan. You activate the alarms on the east side of the base, there's only the ocean in that direction. If possible, make an announcement over the intercom to let anyone still alive have a chance to get away."

"Roger that, Ford. Where are you located?" The man asked. "I can queue up the footage outside your location and guide you out."

"What about you?"

There was another long pause, and when he spoke. His voice as quiet. "It's too late for me, ma'am. I'm bit ma'am, and I don't have much time left."

It was Anna's turn to pause. "I'm sorry, solider, I didn't get your name."

"Emilio Sanchez, ma'am." Sanchez answered. "Petty Officer Third Class and before you give your sympathy, save it ma'am. We don't have time."

Anna rubbed her head, suddenly feeling bad for her previous opinion of this man. "Right." She looked around her. She had been uncharacteristically frantic when she'd left her room, so she hadn't paid attention to which room she'd ducked into. "Second floor…hall C…" Anna said as she looked around the room. "I didn't get the room number but it's Chief Officer Anderson's office." Anna finally was able to answer as she looked at the plaque that had been on the desk.

"Alright, you've got quite the collection outside of your door but hopefully your plan will draw them off. If all goes to plan, your best option is to go right to the end of the hall, where the staircase is located. Once on the ground level, go out of the fire door which head you straight to the secondary gate."

"Roger." Anna said, closing her eyes as she tried to visualize the corridor.

"Initiating alarm in three…two…one." Sanchez said then the loud blare of the intruder alarm sounded again but this time only out by the shoreline.

You could hear the hungry growls of the undead as they got excited and agitated. When Anna looked outside of the window, she could see the undead slowly lumbering towards the sound.

"All personnel the base has been overrun." Sanchez's voice came over the intercom. "Abandon base, I repeat abandon base. Wait ten minutes for the undead to move off then head east. Rendezvous at EZ 4."

Early in the Outbreak, the powers that be had set up evacuation protocol's, most of which were never activated and were beyond the point of being able to activate but they had set up six evacuation zones, all stocked with a limited amount of food, weapons and other survival needs, for cases such as this.

"Are you still there, Ford?" Sanchez asked, once again on the phone.

"Yeah. Good thinking with the EZ." Anna said, kicking herself for not thinking of that herself.

"You should be clear straight to the ground level but be careful once outside, there's a couple blind spot that I can't see and some undead that are lingering. I've unlocked the doors for the buildings that should be on the way, give you a place to duck into but I set the timer to relock the doors in fifteen minutes…I doubt I have that long." Sanchez said, his voice grim.

"Thank you." Anna said softly.

"It's the least I can do." Sanchez said with equal softness. "Now go! And God speed."

"Good bye." Anna said then hung up the phone. With a sad sigh, Anna looked down at Juno. "C'mon girl, we're getting out of here."

Anna pulled the desk and chair away from the door and slowly opened it poked her head into the hall. Not a single undead was insight, so Anna raised her gun and stepped into the hall.

"Heel." Anna said in a firm whisper, ordering Juno to stay at her side.

They trotted down the hall together, running as quietly as they could and keeping their eyes constantly moving, looking for danger. They made it to the stairwell without incident, but Anna wasn't out of the clear yet. She opened the door carefully, closing the door quietly behind Juno once they entered the stairwell. Anna pointed her gun over the rail, looking first down then up, making sure there were no undead in the stairwell then rapidly descended to the bottom.

The door at the bottom was a solid steel door with no window and with no windows in the walls to see outside, Anna just had to hope there were no undead within the immediate vicinity of the door. Like before, she slowly opened the door, peered carefully outside then stepped out into the sunlight.

As Sanchez had suggested, there were undead still lingering near the building, but they were far enough away that Anna and Juno should make it to the gate. Anna took off at run, running as fast as she could, narrowly dodging an undead as it emerged from the shadows of one of the buildings as Anna ran by, but Juno must have smelled it and tackled it to the ground before hightailing it after Anna.

Anna finally made it to the gate and swiped her card in the cardlock in the security room beside the gate. She paused as she stared at the gate as it rolled open. She could leave it open and let more of the undead to walk in but if there was still someone alive inside and they didn't have the clearance to open the gate or forgot their security card, they'd have a hard time getting out.

Anna cursed as she laid her card down on the counter, wrote her security number down on a sheet of paper, the hit the close button and burst through the gate as it closed. Once through the gate, she paused and looked back at the base. There couldn't possibly be a safer place than that out there? What was she going to do? Should she try to find her brother? If she was to do that, where would she find him? He lived back home in Texas with his family when the outbreak hit but it was very unlikely that he was still there, if he was even still alive.

Anna sighed, first thing was first. Go to EZ 4. Being on foot, it took Anna an hour to get to the EZ and when she arrived, no one had yet arrived. EZ 4 was in fact an abandoned cabin deep in the woods behind the base. There was only one road that lead to the cabin and that road could be easily missed if you didn't know where to look.

111

Anna stayed in the cabin for a week. After the second day, she knew that no one was coming but she didn't know what to do next, so she just stayed. After her eighth day, she had a close encounter with a large herd of the undead, making the cabin no longer a safe place to stay. She decided she was too close to a major city, so she need to move deep into the wilderness if she was to have any chance of escaping their presence.

The only problem with that thought was that it was more than likely, many others had thought of that as well and she was likely to run into hostiles. On top of that, she wasn't like her brother, she couldn't really hunt. She could shoot things, but hunting was more of an art. So far, she'd largely survived off of the food that was in the cabin with the occasional squirrel that Juno had caught. While she was a better hunter than Anna, Juno was a War dog. She was meant for smelling out humans and explosives and protecting Anna, not catching squirrels and rabbits.

Anna stuffed every bit of food, medical supplies, bullets and survival gear she could into the pack that was in the cabin and what she could into the pockets of Juno's vest. With one last look around the cabin, Anna walked out of the door and headed northwest.

111

Anna collapsed on to her knees, exhausted and parched, next to the small stream. Anna wasn't sure how many days had gone by since she'd left the cabin, but it'd been at least a month, maybe two and things weren't going well for her. The food she'd taken from the cabin had long since run out and the houses and businesses she'd come across had very little or nothing left in them.

The only water she'd been able to find, had been from streams and rivers that she could find on increasingly rare occasions. In the beginning she'd treat her water with the tablets that killed the germs that lived in it but those too had run out. She had a pot to boil her water in but there were days where she was too thirsty to wait for the water to boil and drank straight from the stream, like now. That unfortunately had left her with some unpleasant side effects, leaving her even more dehydrated from not being able to keep any fluids in her body and weak.

On top of the fact that she was ill half the time and barely ever ate, she also barely slept. Occasionally, she found a house she could stay in for a night or two, but it almost never failed that whenever she found a place, she thought might be safe, a herd of the undead would roll through or hostile people would show up and run her out of town. Anna was very skilled with her gun and successfully defended herself several times, but she was only one person and she only had so many bullets.

Anna was splashing water on her face when Juno suddenly looked up and let out a quiet whine as she looked towards the bush to their left. It was the sound that Juno made which told Anna that the undead was nearby. Anna took a quick gulp of water, then got to her feet as she looked around them cautiously.

"C'mon." Anna whispered to Juno as she dashed off into the bush, heading in the opposite direction than Juno had sensed the undead.

They had only run a few yards when they slid to a stop as their path was blocked by a massive herd of the undead. They turned and bolt off in another direction only to have to make a quick change in direction, once more. Juno could have easily out paced her, especially now days but she was loyal and would only run as fast as Anna.

Anna was quickly losing steam, having not eaten in four days, and her adrenaline was quickly fading. They suddenly broke from the cover of the trees on to a highway which was a bit of relief for Anna, a highway would be a lot easier to run on. The highway was slightly raised, and Anna tried her best to raise her feet high enough to continue running but her toes caught the edge of the pavement and she tumbled forward, hitting her head on the road. Anna tried to get to her feet as Juno licked her face anxiously, but Anna could barely get onto her elbows, her strength completely depleted.

Juno suddenly growled viciously and lunged over top of Anna as she continued to try and get up. She started barking and running off, trying to lure the undead away from Anna but she was only partially successful. Finally, Anna flopped on to her back and pulled out her pistol and started shooting at the undead who were still coming after her, but her vision had become blurred and she was having a hard time getting headshots.

Anna had wondered if she was starting to lose her mind as music suddenly reached her ears, slowly gaining volume. Her pistol had just clicked, running out of bullets, as a car suddenly screeched just short of her head. Anna reached up and grabbed the bumper as a man burst out of the driver's door and swung at the undead that was bending over to take a chunk out of Anna's shoulder, crushing its skull and killing it instantly.

"Get to your feet girl!" The man barked as he continued to fight off walkers as they tried to get to her.

Anna managed to get shakily to her feet as Juno suddenly appeared at her side, her bloody muzzle nudging her arm, encouraging her to get up. When she couldn't get up any further, an arm grabbed her arm and roughly picked her up and practically dragged her to passenger side door, eliciting a dangerous growl from Juno as he shoved her inside the car. Juno quickly jumped into Anna's lap then into the back seat as the man bashed his way around the front of the car then climbed behind the wheel and squealed the tires as he took off.

Anna discreetly grabbed her knife as she looked over at the man who'd just saved her as he sat next to her. The first thing she noticed was that he only had one hand and a knife had been secured to his stub. The next thing she noticed was that he was very well muscled and obviously well fed and he looked every bit of the redneck that he probably was. He also looked very dangerous, not the type of person Anna would normally climb in a car with.

"You look like shit." The man said as he used his stub to awkwardly steer as he reached into the center console, hitting the power button on the radio then pulled a cigarette from its carton in the ashtray and popped it into his mouth then picked up the lighter and lit his cigarette. "What's your name girl?"

Anna just watched him cautiously as she continued to discreetly clutch her knife.

"I ain't gonna hurt you girl." He said as he reached beneath his seat and pulled out a mostly empty whiskey bottle and held it out to her. "I wasn't expecting any company nor was I expecting on survivin' the day, but you can have this. It'll at least lessen the hunger pangs."

Anna cautiously took the bottle from him then took a sniff. It certainly smelled like whiskey. She looked back at Juno as she licked her chops as she eyed the man suspiciously. She didn't trust him, but she wasn't acting aggressively either. Anna finally took a good size sip, winced then held the bottle out to the man beside her.

"Naw. I drank most of it, you need something in yer stomach." Merle said waving the bottle away. Now that they were no longer surrounded by an army of the undead, the man had slowed down to a reasonably speed and inspected her. "You take those threads off of a body or is it really yours?" He asked indicating her now ratty uniform.

"It's mine…I'm…Annabelle Ford. That's my partner, Juno. She's a military dog, I wouldn't recommend pissing her off." Anna said, smiling slightly. This was her first human interaction since she'd left the base.

"Or what?" The man asked smirking slightly. "She'll rip my face off?"

"From this angle, that's the most likely option otherwise she'd go for the jugular." Anna responded smiling.

"That's a Navy crest on your arm, ain't it?" The man asked, pointing to her shoulder.

"The SEALs, to be exact…I'm sorry I didn't catch your name." Anna asked as she continued to study him. He had a sharp, chiselled face with shrewd blue eye and short dark blonde hair with some greys in it.

"Merle, Merle Dixon."

"Well, Mister Dixon, you look well fed and clean. I'm guessing you belong to a group."

"Just Merle. And I've, in fact, had several groups but they've either abandoned me or destroyed itself." Merle said shrugging.

"You said you weren't planning on surviving the day, were you planning on killing yourself or something? You had that stereo awfully loud, it almost seemed like you were trying to _attract_ the undead. Then you said you drank almost a whole bottle of whiskey."

"I wasn't exactly tryin' to kill myself." Merle answered as he studied her then shrugged once more. "I was going to kill this guy, the leader of my former group. He was one bad man, killed a lot of innocent people, tried to force me to kill my baby brother. A real Ted Bundy type. A good looking and charismatic fellow on the outside, homicidal psychopath on the inside. It was highly unlikely that I'd survive attacking him."

"What happened to your brother?" Anna asked, accepting his answering.

"Aw, my brothers pansy assed friends showed up and got us outta there. You see, he was in a different group, a group that I was apart of back at the start…until they left me to die, chained up to a roof top in Atlanta."

"Why'd they do that?" Anna asked, her suspicion suddenly making her tense once more, but Merle just shrugged.

"Had a drug problem, made some poor decisions. M' brother said they came back for me, but I was already gone. That's how I lost the hand." Merle continued as he held his stub up.

"And what happened to your brothers' group? And you still haven't said what happened to him." Anna asked, wondering what kind of people this man associated with.

"Oh, they're fine, he's fine…for now. So is my old boss, and he's set to destroy my brother's new best friends."

"So, you were going to kill 'em first." Anna said. Normally Anna could generally get a pretty good read on people, but this Merle was all over the board. Part of her screamed _DANGER STAY AWAY!_ while another part of her said _he's better than he seems_.

"I was going to try. Killin' the Governor would go a long way to prolong my brother's life. Add a couple of his lieutenants would be even better."

"The _Governor_?" Anna asked as Merle turned down a dirt road.

Merle grunted. "That's what he calls himself, although he claims the towns people started calling him that. Most of the people who live in Woodbury think he's a saint, but those people usually don't leave the walls."

"And is that where we're goin' now?" Anna asked as she studied the trees around them.

"Nope. We're gonna get you some food." Merle said as he rolled to a stop just on the edge of road. "I'm gonna go out there, see if I can bag me some rabbit or something else edible. You and yer mutt stay here. Rest up."

Anna looked at Merle critically. "Why are you helping me? From what I've seen, it's everyone for themselves. If you ain't apart of a group already, then you're on your own."

"That's a little dramatic but yeah, its hard to survive right now." Merle said as he reached behind him for a rifle Anna hadn't previously seen but he stopped when Juno bared her teeth and growled.

"Easy Juno." Anna said soothingly then looked back at Merle. "A strange man grabbing for a weapon doesn't sit well with a dog whose spent the last three years overseas, dealing with men trying to kill us."

Merle cleared his throat then slowly continued to reach for the gun. "Right. Anyways, as to why…well I've been one mean sumabitch my whole life and it ain't gotten me nothin'. My brother is buddy-buddy with a couple people for a few months and he's a fuckin' hero to them."

"So you figure you'd take a page from his book?" Anna suggested. That must've been what she was sensing. Merle was a man with a vicious streak, but he was trying to change that, and it was difficult for him.

"I guess. 'Nough with the sixty questions. I'll be back." Merle said as he opened the door then exited the vehicle.

Anna took another sip from the bottle of whiskey as she watched Merle disappear into the forest. Once he was out of sight, she bent forward and slid off the nearly empty pack from her back. All that was really in the bag was a small hatchet, a flashlight with a couple extra batteries, half a pack of waterproof matches, a basic first aid kit, some bullets, a small blackened pot and a camouflage rain poncho.

The first thing she did was to pull down the car visor and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Right near her left temple was a small gash that had apparently bled quite a bit but now had stopped. She could also see a bruise forming on the side of her face where it had made contact with the pavement, in another few hours it'd be considerably more colorful. Anna pulled out the first aid kit and used the alcohol wipes to wipe the blood off her face and attached a Band-Aid over the small cut.

She then pulled out the box of bullets, then sighed as she looked inside, she only had five bullets left for her pistol. She popped her clip out and inserted the five bullets and popped her clip back into her gun. Once the gun was loaded, she slid the gun into its holster and looked back at Juno.

"Come up." Anna said to her as she patted the driver seat.

Juno jumped over the armrest into the driver seat then turned and looked at Anna expectantly, her tongue lolling out as she panted. Anna ran her hands over Juno's face, neck and body, looking for any signs of injury but she couldn't find any. After trying to wipe the blood off Juno with her sleeve, she looked Juno in the eye.

"What do you think, girl? Should we just leave?" Anna asked her as she scratched Juno on the neck. "I admit that I miss talking with people, but this guy? Maybe we should try to find that group his brother is with."

Anna sighed. If she wanted to try to join that group, she'd have to talk to Merle at least one more time, she had no idea where to even begin to look and she wasn't sure how much longer she could go on without food. Anna decided to stay for now, so she reclined her seat and get as much rest as she could. Realizing that Anna was settling down to sleep, Juno crawled into her lap and put her head on Anna's shoulder. Having a seventy-pound dog sleeping on you wasn't the most comfortable thing but Anna appreciated the company and was too exhausted to care.

111

Sometime later, Anna woke to the sound of a soft growl near her ear and a voice calling her. Anna groaned and tried to sit up but wasn't immediately able to as Juno still held her down.

"Girl! Wake up!" Merle voice called followed by him clapping his hands as he let out a sharp whistle.

Juno finally got off her chest and climbed into the backseat, so Anna could sit up. "Sorry, I guess I'm more exhausted then I thought." Anna said as she rubbed her eyes.

"Well I caught a pair of rabbits and found some old hunters' cabin. It's got stuff we can take." Merle said as he finally climbed inside the car, now that Juno was no longer threatening to attack him, throwing the rabbit into her lap. While he had been trying to wake her, he had been standing by the driver side with door open, looking in. Juno probably wasn't being too pleasant, so he probably thought it best to wait until she woke up. Now that Anna was awake and calmly interacting with Merle, and now that Juno had settled down, it was now safe to enter the car.

"That dog of yers ain't too pleasant." Merle said glaring over his shoulder.

"Like I said, she's a war dog. Part of her job was to protect me, not just sniff out bombs and hostiles." Anna said as she straightened her seat. "We were together for three years before all this happened, which is unusual. Usually dogs and handlers get reassigned after a year, maybe two."

"Fascinating." Merle said sarcastically as he started the car via the wires hanging from the steering column and turned the vehicle around. "So long as it don't bark."

"No, she knows well enough to not bark. If she smells something, she has signals. Some only I can recognize." Anna said as she watched the landscape roll by.

"Once again, _fascinating_." Merle said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

Anna glared at Merle. "Well Juno ain't the only unpleasant thing in this car."

"Oh, don't sell yourself short." Merle said smirking at her. "You ain't that bad."

Merle turned down a road that Anna hadn't seen when they had driven by it earlier and couldn't really see it until Merle was turning onto it. He drove down the very narrow and bumpy road until the road ended in a small clearing with a rickety old house at the opposite end. Merle rolled to a stop in front of the house and moved to get out but stopped and looked back at Anna.

"Need help girl?" Merle asked eyeing her.

"One, it's Anna or Annabelle or even Ford. And two, I'm fine." Anna said as she opened her door. She put her feet on the ground and painfully stood up, wobbled then managed to straighten up.

"You sure?" Merle asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Anna walked around the car as Juno jumped out. "I'm fine." She growled as she moved towards the house then grasped the rail as she stepped up onto the front porch.

After grabbing the rabbits from where Anna had left them on her seat, Merle followed her inside the house. The house was precisely as Merle described it, a hunting cabin. Along one wall, six deer antler racks dominated the wall, and on the floor was a massive bear rug that took up most of the small cabin. The cabin was essentially a square box with no rooms. In one corner, a bed was pushed into the corner and a tiny kitchenette took up most of the wall that opposed the antler wall. A pair of cowhide chairs and a tiny table with a pair of wooden chairs, were the only other furniture in the cabin besides the tiny bed but even with so little furniture, there wasn't a lot of room to move around.

Anna sat heavily in one of the cowhide chairs and put her head in her hands as Juno stood in front up her, panting. Merle, on the other hand, plunked the rabbits down on the counter then moved to the fireplace that took up what remained of the wall beside the kitchenette. After a couple minutes of using the small hatchet that had been propped against the fireplace to make a log into smaller kindling, Merle had good size fire going.

"If yer fine, why don't you go outside and get some water from that well I saw beside the house. We can boil it so we can have some drinking water. Even I will need water soon." Merle said as he walked back to kitchenette. "I'll skin these and fry 'em up."

Anna nodded as she rolled to her feet then walked back outside with Juno on her heels. Like Merle had said, there was a well beside the house, partially hidden by the overgrown grass. Two galvanized pails sat hidden the grass beside the well with a thick, long rope coiled up beside them. Anna picked up the rope and found that it had a hook at the end.

Anna attached the hook to the handle of the first bucket, then lowered it into the well. When the bucket was full of water, it took all she had just to pull the bucket back up. Once she had it over the lip of the well, she immediately started slurping the water. She knew it probably wasn't safe, but she needed something other than whiskey in her stomach and it was helping her cool off while giving her some strength.

Once she had enough, she put the bucket down on the ground, in front of Juno and let her drink as Anna put the other bucket onto the hook and lowered it into the well. After a bit of struggle to get the second bucket up, she finally succeeded and awkwardly carried the pail into the house.

Merle watched her as she brought the pail to the kitchenette and then struggle to lift the pail onto the counter. "I thought you military chicks were supposed to be strong." Merle said as he impaled chunks of meat onto a wiener stick.

"I _was_ strong." Anna huffed as she leaned against the counter, suddenly feeling nauseous. "I haven't really eaten properly in a month. I actually used to have muscle mass."

"I thought military chicks had survival skills…to you know, survive on their own." Merle said as he lifted the pail and dumped half of the water into a pot that could be hung over the flame from the house that was screwed into the stone of the fireplace.

"Throw me into a warzone in the middle of the city, I could survive for months, easily. Drop me in the middle of the wilderness, not so much. My brother was better at that sort of thing." Anna said as she sat in her cowhide chair once more while Merle carried the wiener stick under one arm and the pot in his hand.

Merle just grunted in response as he hung the pot, then pulled the other cowhide chair closer and stuck the rabbit meat into the flames as he sat down. They were completely silent while he cooked the rabbit and when it was done, he held the stick in front of her face. Anna only took one piece, not wanting to be greedy, especially since she didn't catch the food and he did save her life.

"All of it, Ford. That's only one rabbit." Merle said then waited for her to take the meat before getting up and returning to the kitchenette.

When he returned to his spot in front of the fire, Anna looked up from inhaling her rabbit and studied Merle. "So, what's your plan past feeding me?"

Merle frowned as he looked over his shoulder. "Whatdya mean?"

"You were planning on getting yourself killed, killing the man who wronged you. That still the plan? Or are you going back to your brother?" Anna asked as she handed a strip of rabbit to Juno.

"Well, the chance to kill the Governor has passed and quite frankly I'm done with all of that. My brother don't need me, he does better when I'm not around. I guess I don't have one. A plan. What 'bout you? You goin' somewhere?" Merle finally asked as he sat back, put the wiener stick between his knees and pulled the meat off it.

"Well, originally I was planning on finding the wildest part of the state, figuring that'd be the safest from the undead but I was wrong."

Merle grunted. "First couple months, that plan woulda gotten you away from walkers but once the food ran out, they went in search for more."

"Obviously that hasn't worked for me so…I don't know, maybe go north? The base I was stationed at, it was doing well up until a couple of months ago…from a survival aspect. I guess I'm hoping that maybe a base around Washington or Virginia might do even better." Anna answered then licked the fat off her fingers.

"That's no short distance." Merle said watching her carefully.

Anna sighed. "I know, and I haven't exactly been doing all that well neither."

"No, you haven't. No way you'd make it there like this." Merle said indicating Anna. "How 'bout this, I escort you to the northern end of Georgia, find a good place to hole up in for a week or so then teach ya to hunt and survive out here in the wild and you make sure those assholes don't shoot me on sight when we find you a base."

Anna studied Merle again trying to read him, but like before she was getting all sort of mixed signals, but he was all she had right now. Anna put out her hand. "Deal." She said then Merle gripped her hand and shook it.

"Deal."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to post this! Life kinda has been getting in the way of my writing and editing, so it's taking me longer to post. It'll likely be that for the foreseeable future but hopefully it'll only take me no more than 10 days to post a chapter, ideally less.

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Anna stared down the narrow shaft of her arrow, staring at the beautiful buck in front of her trying to line up a good shoot. Behind her stood Merle, quietly murmuring advice in her ear about where to aim and reminding her of how the weather will affect her shot.

Finally, she let her arrow loose and watched as it sailed through the air then thumped into the deer's ribs, where the heart was located. The buck managed to take three running steps forward but pitched forward on its third step. When the deer ceased moving, Anna looked back at Merle and grinned.

"That should keep us fed for almost a week!" Anna said proudly.

Near three months had passed since she'd met Merle and some how, they were still together. The first month, had been a very tense one with Merle's short temper coming to bear but he quickly came to realize that she was an equally angry ginger who was not shy of throwing a right hook. He had tried to intimidate her into seeing things his way but had failed, miserably. Once she'd gotten food and water in her, her personality shone through and Juno was always ready to tear his throat out, should Anna command. At first Merle seemed to bristle at her strong-willed behavior but now, he seemed to enjoy it…most of the time.

As they had originally planned, the two of them had gone to the northern part of Georgia, found a nice, secluded cabin and stayed there for six weeks. Merle had liked being there so much, he seemed like was planning on permanently but another, very hostile group came through and ran them out. It had been a nice stop, though, with a stone cabin on a low cliff, over looking a fast running river, standing above the almost everything but the trees like a castle on top of a hill.

"Lucky shot, Ford." Merle said thumping her on the back before moving around her towards the deer.

"Or maybe I'm just a natural!" Anna said, following after him with Juno hot on her heels.

Juno had chilled out about Merle over the last month, even seemed almost trust him a little. While she hadn't been overly aggressive with him, she didn't like him getting near Anna if she was asleep or being left a lone with him. Now Juno would approach him, tail wagging and Anna had even caught Merle giving Juno a vigorous tummy rub quietly talking baby talk to her.

Merle stopped in front of the buck then waved towards it. "Well, princess? You killed it, you skin it."

Anna slung the bow over her shoulder and knelt down in front of it. One of her many lessons from Merle was skinning animals but she'd yet to skin something quite so large. She pulled out her massive knife and started cutting into the flesh.

"Don't be so damn delicate!" Merle grumbled as he took the knife from her and started vigorously cutting into the buck.

Anna had to admit, Merle was kind of impressive. Despite lacking a hand, he could do most things just as well as she could with both her hands and sometimes even better. If he had a better disposition, she might actually start feeling attracted to the guy! But he was a little too coarse for her and tended to make her feel incompetent. He probably had been right, she should know more about surviving than she did and while she did know many things about survival, none of it seemed to apply to their present situation.

Satisfied that he had demonstrated skinning a deer effectively enough, he handed her back the knife and watched as she continued. After a moment, he let out a grunt that meant he approved, then moved around the clearing, picking up sticks and started making a fire.

By the time she was done, Anna had a nice stack of meat which she had neatly stacked on the buck's skin, that she picked up and carried it over to where Merle sat by the fire, taking a drag from his last remaining smoke. When he saw her approach, he snuffed it out, and put it his pocket to finish at a later time. He then held out a stick that he hard sharpened the end to a point, as she plunked the stack of meat between them. Anna took the stick then speared several chunks of venison onto the stick and held it over the fire. They had to too cook it all now, so it wouldn't go bad and as it was, some would likely spoil anyways with only two of them eating the venison.

"We'll be spoiled for the next week." Anna said after a while, smiling. "We'll have to eat larger than our normal portions just to finish it before it gets old!"

Merle just grunted in response which annoyed her a bit. Sometimes it felt like she was still on her own. Merle tend to not say much to her which seemed a little out character for him…or at least he gave the impression of someone who couldn't keep his yapper shut. Anna tried again.

"Do you miss your brother?" She asked to which Merle just shrugged as he tossed Juno some raw meat. "Seriously, man! Say _something_!"

"Pfft, most people can't wait for me to shut up." Merle said then laughed as he continued to gaze at the fire. "What you expect me to say, Ford? Y' want me to share my deepest darkest secrets? We ain't got nothing in common but the need to survive."

"You don't know that! You don't know nothing about me and you sure as hell haven't shared anything about yourself…except that you have a brother and used to have a drug problem!"

"What you want to tell you? About how my old beat the tar outta me, my brother and my momma. Or how my momma had a drinking problem and blacked out in bed while smoking and burnt the house down with her in it? Or maybe tell about my mile long list of infractions and arrests? Or maybe you wanna hear about my more recent sins, all the people I killed, some of who didn't deserve to die?" Merle snarled, finally looking at her.

"I wasn't expecting your life story, Merle!" Anna growled back. "Just make conversation! Things you like, things you find funny! Hell, the things you _don't_ like! I don't care! I just want _some_ thing to fill the silence!"

"I like hunting! That make you happy?" Merle growled as he lifted the meat from the flame then stuck the meat in a grocery bag. "My little brother used to hate it when we were kids, he always had a soft spot for animals, but he had to learn if he didn't want to starve."

Anna sobered up, suddenly realizing that the things he had just said, were kind of tragic, but Merle was the type to hate pity. "What's your brothers name?" Anna decided to just act like things were normal.

Merle sighed, annoyed as he put more meat on his stick then reached over and snatched her stick and lifted it out of the fire. "Pay attention, girl! Yer burning our food!" Merle scolded.

Anna smiled at him sheepishly. "Sorry." She said then blew on the meat to cool it down.

Merle was quiet again for a moment, watching the fire then straightened his back. "Daryl." Merle said confusing Anna. "My brother, his name is Daryl. You have brother too, don't ya?" Merle asked, shocking Anna a bit. This was the first time he'd enquired about anything other than if she was hungry.

"Yeah, an older brother. Abraham." Anna said nodding as she pulled the meat off of her stick than added more and held it over the flame once more.

"You think he's still alive?" Merle asked, shocking Anna once more.

Anna sighed. "I hope so. I'm sure the accent is a give away but I'm from Texas and that's where my brother and his family was when it all went down. My brother was in the military too, the Army, but he's since retired. He's tough though, like you, knew a lot more about things like hunting."

"You a military brat or somethin'?" Merle asked.

Anna chuckled. "Yeah, I even went to a military school which sucked balls. I wish I went to a regular school but kids in the military school understood the moving thing better than normal kids. It's kinda ironic that Abe and I both joined the military. We were never close with our father, and we both hated moving constantly."

"My old man is the reason my brother an' I are so messed up." Merle said, looking over at Anna. "Fer the longest time, I thought every family was like ours, just behind closed doors, that everyone was two faced and would stab you in the back when they got the chance, that the only people you could trust was blood…now I'm not so sure."

"What changed your mind?" Anna asked, happy that he was finally talking to her.

"As much as I hate that prick Rick, he's stayed loyal to Daryl and Daryl is very loyal to him. Many of their group members have had a chance to stab each other in the back to advance their own cause, but they opt to help one another instead. The only person I've gone outta my way to help, is my brother…and I guess you now." Merle shrugged as he looked back at the flame then lifted his meat from the flame.

"Well I ain't the backstabbing sort, either." Anna said removing her meat from the flame as well.

Merle scoffed, "I'm all you got."

Anna laughed. "That might be true…for now. Even if we do join a group or let people join us, I don't intend on stabbing you in the back. I owe you, you saved my life."

"Damn straight you owe me!" Merle said loudly but he was smirking slightly. "Now shut yer yapper and let's eat."

111

Anna cursed under her breath as she wiped the sweat from her forehead as she followed Merle through the under growth. The car they had been driving when they'd met was long gone and then two other vehicles had too come and gone. Their first vehicle had gotten them to northern Georgia and the surrounding area, but Merle had somehow managed to blow a pin threw the transmission case, leaving them without a vehicle.

When they had decided to continue their journey north, it had taken them almost a week to find a vehicle that would start and continue to drive. The two that they had found were beat up junkers that really didn't get them all that far. Now, they travelled by foot and the weather had turn from warm, to scorching hot but despite the heat, they continued to plod through the woods.

Surprisingly, with each passing day, Anna and Merle seemed to be getting closer and closer. Anna no longer felt like an invalid, doing just as much hunting…when there was food to be found, and gathering as Merle. Considering how scant things seemed to be at the moment, they were fortunate that it was just the two of them. If they'd been in a larger group, there was no way they'd be able to support themselves. Anna grabbed her water bottle from the hook on her hip, then cursed when she realized that it was empty.

"We need more water." Anna said as she put the bottle back on its clip.

Merle stopped and held out his bottle which barely had more then a sip left in it. "Here." He said as he looked back at her.

Anna held her hands up and shook her head. "Yer a bigger guy, you need it more."

"I ain't the one thirsty." Merle said then grabbed the collar of her shirt and shoved down the front then turned away before Anna could react.

Anna laughed as she pulled the bottle out of her shirt then gave Merle a playful boot in the rear. "Ass."

Merle smirked crookedly as he looked over his shoulder at her. "I can't win. I be a prick and I get called an ass. Give the last of my water and I still get called an ass. What's the point in bein' nice?"

"It's all in the presentation, Merle." Anna said, grinning as Merle walked backwards, facing her. "Giving me your water was in fact nice but shoving it down a woman's shirt, well that may be considered sexual harassment."

"You can't blame a guy for wanting to get a little tit action. It's been forever since I've gotten laid!" Merle said then grinned and turned around as Anna rolled her eyes. "You know yer a bit of a hypocrite."

"What'd you mean?" Anna asked trotting a few steps to walk beside Merle.

"You've been houndin' me to tell you all about my past groups, my past life but you ain't hardly told me a thing about you. I just know that you were in the Navy SEALs as a K-9 handler, that you grew up in Texas and that you had an old brother named Abraham."

Anna rolled her eyes. "That's because you haven't asked."

"Fine, I'm asking."

"You'll have to be more specific as to what you wanna know."

Merle was quiet a moment as he thought then looked over at Anna. "Tell me about the place you were livin' at before we met, it was a base right?"

"Yeah, just off the coast." Anna confirmed. "It was safe…until the end. Had a tall, electrified fence all around the fifty acres of land, we had our own fuel tankards, an independent power network, security camera's and more than enough weaponry to defend our borders. But…" Anna sighed and rubbed her head.

"But what?" Merle asked, eyeing her carefully.

"It was a dictatorship. There was this guy, Commander Grainer, he was the dictator. A Dictator that had a thing for me." Anna sighed, she really didn't want to talk about him, but Merle had shared some really personal things. "Before everything went down, him and I had a…thing while we were both on tour."

"Ain't that against the rules?" Merle asked cocking an eyebrow.

"It most certainly is." Anna confirmed.

"Huh, didn't take you for the breaking the rules kind of person." Merle said smiling.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Anna asked glaring at Merle. "Do you think I'm up tight?"

Merle laughed as he walked under a tree, put his back to the truck and slid to the ground. Anna was overheating and thirsty, so she didn't object and sat down beside him.

"Yeah I kinda do." Merle said unapologetically.

Anna gave him a hard elbow to the ribs but smiled. "Anyways. I broke it off with him before we even got back from Afghanistan, a woman dating her superior office tends to get you dishonorably discharged, if caught. After shit hit the fan, well he was the highest ranking officer still alive and being that everyone was military, that made him the leader. When he decided that we were a thing again, if I wanted to stay on the base, I had to go along with it."

"He forced you to be with him?" Merle asked, sounding slightly surprised.

Anna sighed. "Yeah, but I got it easy. I got three square meals, didn't have to do any hard labor…although I did some anyways. Others weren't so lucky. People had food withheld if they did something Grainer didn't like or got kicked out and by the end, he started killing people."

"Why didn't you leave?" Merle asked. "You ain't the sort too take shit from people."

"Why didn't you? Your boss wasn't exactly a gem, either." Anna countered.

"I was usin' the Governor to find my brother. You didn't have that reason."

"May not have been trying to find my brother but there were families there, families of my fellow soldiers that I knew and cared for, I wanted to look out for them." Anna put her head back as she took a tiny sip from the bottle, she then poured a small amount in her hand for Juno to lap up and handed the bottle to Merle. Instead of protesting, Merle finished off what remained of water.

"C'mon Ford, we ain't gonna find water or food sittin' on our asses." Merle said as he stood up, then offered her his hand. Anna took it then let him pull her to her feet.

They continued through the woods, only finding a single puddle to fill one bottle with water but at least it was water. As the sun started sliding towards early evening, they came across a path that lead to an old barn, breaking from the trees just as someone retreated into the trees on the other side, making Juno growl quietly. Merle stopped and stared at the spot where the man had disappeared into the woods as Anna walked to a flattened spot of grass and knelt down beside it.

"Looks like he stopped to take a smoke break." Anna said as she held up a cigarette butt which Juno smelt with interest.

Merle didn't even look her way or acknowledge her before taking off in the direction that they had seen the man disappear into the bush. Frowning, Anna hurried after him, going as quietly as she could and stopped right behind Merle as he stopped at the edge of a road, still within the cover of the trees. In front of them, stood a large group of people, debating what they needed to do next. Anna suddenly got tunnel vision as she stared at the back of a red head with a crew haircut and when the head turned, her body moved on its own. Merle hissed at her to stop but she couldn't, as she broke through the trees.

"Abe!" Anna exclaimed as she stepped from the shadows of the trees into the blistering sun, instantly greeted by ten guns pointed at her head, making Juno snarl viciously.

Abraham barrelled through the group, shoving guns down as he went. "Annabelle!" He called, tears starting as he ran towards her.

Anna commanded Juno to stand down then turned and wrapped her arms tightly around her brothers' neck and pressed her face into her sweaty neck, as he scooped her up and twirled her around. As Anna continued to hug her brother, she heard Abraham's friends raise their guns once more as Merle finally stepped onto the road.

"Merle?" Several voices said at once, most sounding less then pleased.

"What the hell ya'll doin' way out here?" Merle asked as Anna let go of her brother's neck and looked behind her. "What happened to the prison?"

"Your former employer returned with a tank and a new group of friends." A woman with dreadlocks sneered, she obviously detested Merle. "Cut Hershel's head off."

"This ain't you, is it?" A man that had to be Merle's younger brother asked as he stepped forward and held out a sheet of paper to Merle."

Merle took the paper and looked at it. "Tch, nope. It ain't us. You think I'd do somethin' like this?"

"And who are you?" A Latino woman with a dark set of messy pigtails asked with considerable hostility.

"Easy Rosita." Abraham said frowning. "This is my little sister and apparently her NSW."

Her expression moved from hostile to shocked. "You have a _sister_?"

"While I'm usually all for family reunions, we really need to focus on this." The Asian man said, indicating several bottles on the road.

"Glenn's right, if this isn't from these two, where did it come from?" Asked another man asked.

Abraham stepped back and stared into the shadows of the trees, obviously looking for a threat but he never took his hand off her back.

"What's the dilemma?" Anna asked as she looked up at Abraham.

"We were just walking along the road when we came across that water. We don't know where it came from and it hasn't been sitting there long." Another dark haired woman said with a short ponytail.

"Sounds like yer bein' watched." Merle said, looking at the note once more.

"Can yer dog smell out poisons?" Abraham asked pointing to Juno.

Anna shook her head. "She's trained to smell out people and munitions, not that sort of thing. If ya'll hadn't gotten your mitts all over the bottles, she could track down the person who put the water there."

"You wouldn't happen to have water?" A young boy asked, who couldn't be older than fifteen.

Anna unclipped her bottle of water and handed it to boy. "Sorry sunshine, that's all we got."

"What about food?" The kid asked hopefully as he bounced an approximately one year old baby.

"We ain't got none of that." Merle growled. "Git yer own."

"Merle don't be a prick." The man Anna assumed to be Daryl, said.

"In the months since I've met Merle, I've learned that Merle's a natural prick but he's telling the truth, we ate the last of our food this morning." Anna said earning chuckles from a couple of the group and a faint smirk from his brother.

Suddenly the sky darkened, and everyone looked up as the sky rumbled. When Anna looked first turned her face upwards a couple rain drops of rain splattered on her face but as she continued to look up, it was as if someone had turned the tap all of the way open as it began to pour. It felt amazing after the intense heat and humidity that had plagued them for the past week, and everyone just stood there, some with their faces turned up. The two women who'd questioned her, laughed as they laid down on the pavement while others opened their mouths to get much needed hydration as Abraham wrapped his big arms around her and hugged her tightly. Anna stared sadly at the group, finally noticing the absence of Ellen and her two nieces, that could only mean one thing.

"Everyone." The curly haired man called. "Get out the bags, get out anything to catch this rain!"

Several people snapped out of their revere and hurried to uncap bottles and pulled out anything that would hold water. After another couple of minutes, another peel of the thunder rumbled across the sky as the clouds continued to darken, this one much louder than the last. When the thunder continued to escalate in volume, everyone stopped to stare at the clouds.

"Let's keeping moving." The curly haired man called over the noise, obviously the one in charge.

"There's a barn." Daryl said over the thunder, just barely loud enough for Anna to hear.

"Where?"

Daryl waved at the group to follow him as they quickly gathered up their bottles, then they all trudged after him as he headed into the bush. Merle walked beside his brother as Anna walked besides hers, as they continued through the trees as the storm continued to intensify. When the barn came into view Daryl dropped back as the curly haired man took the lead, with Anna, Abraham and Merle following behind them.

When they reached the door, the leader cautiously opened the door, gun raised as he slowly stepped inside. The Glenn guy followed closely behind him followed by Daryl, Abraham, Anna and Merle, all with their weapons raised as they slowly cleared the room while the rest of the group waited outside in the pouring ran. When the coast was clear the leader waved the rest of the group inside and they closed the doors.

It had taken then them only eight minutes or less to get to the barn, but they may as well have jumped into a lake and swam to the barn for how wet they had become. Daryl and Glenn busied themselves building a fire as the rest of the group studied their new companions.

"I'm Michonne." The woman with dreads introduced herself as she eyed Anna. "We already know Merle…or at least most of us do. You're Annabelle?"

"Please call me Anna." Anna answered, smirking slightly. "But yeah, I'm Abraham's younger sister."

"How'd you two get separated?" A young dark-haired woman asked. "I'm Tara, by the way."

"We weren't anywhere near each other, when things went down." Anna explained. "While we're both from Texas, I'd been stationed at a Navy base on the coast of Georgia while Abe was back home."

"You were in Georgia?" Michonne asked, surprised.

"That's where we met." Merle said his eyes steely as he stared at Michonne. "Shortly after we…parted ways, I found her on the road, fightin' off some walkers. Nearly ran 'er over."

"He saved my life, quite honestly." Anna said.

"You were livin' on base, is that where you still were?" Abraham asked as the others started to lose interest and sat tiredly down around the small flame that Daryl and the Glenn had managed to bring to life. The barn was small, so they could hear most of their conversation anyway.

"Yeah, up until four, maybe five months ago. I don't know what happened, but the dead somehow got in. It must've happened in the night by the time I had awakened, it was already gone. That jackass Grainer didn't raise the alarm like he should have, left us all to die."

Abraham's face darkened but he said nothing. He knew about her past relationship with him and he had been very against it. Him abandoning his post, only confirmed his feels on the man. The leader held his hand out, suddenly deciding that she was alright.

"I'm Rick Grimes, that's my son Carl and my daughter Judith." Rick said as he shook her hand then introduced the rest of the group.

When the introduction where made, everyone split off into little groups or as individuals, Merle walking off with his brother to have a quiet conversation and Anna and Abraham doing the same in another corner of the barn. Once they were somewhat alone, Abraham gave her another hug, even tighter hug.

"I've been thinkin' 'bout you non-stop since things went down." Abraham said as he leaned against the wall beside her. "I hoped you'd survived but…I…I didn't know. Truthfully, after Ellen…I couldn't handle the thought that you might be dead. Shit, I shoulda tried to go to your base."

Anna shook her head. "I ain't. I'm a big girl, I can look after myself." Anna bit her lip, she knew it was going to hurt him to ask the question on her mind, but she had to know. "What…what happened to Ellen…and the girls?"

Abraham scratched the side of his head with both hands as he looked down. "The walkers got her…them. They…they saw me kill a man, a man who tried to steal everything we had. She left with the girls as I was getting rid of the body…they didn't even make it to the car."

Anna's heart broke, she loved all three of them. Ellen had lived in the last city Abraham and Anna's family had moved too with their father and had been in Abraham's graduating class. They had fallen in love and had married straight out of high school. When the girls had been born, Abraham couldn't have been more pleased with himself and Anna had been very proud of her brother, also. Those girls were like her own daughters and she tried to be at every family event that she could go too.

"I'm sorry, Abe." Anna said with so much emotion that Juno let out a low pitiful whine.

"I…I just about let those walkers kill me right then, when I found them, but then Eugene showed up all pitiful and helpless, claiming to have the cure. It gave me reason to go on."

Anna raised her eyebrows. "A cure?"

Abe snorted derisively. "As it turns out, he was full of shit. He lied so that I would save his sorry ass but he's the reason we're out here, heading for Washington, hoping there's some civilization left. I guess I should be thankful to him for getting my sister back."

Anna nodded, "That's why Merle and I were heading that way also, figured that since my base lasted so long that maybe one in Washington might do even better."

Abe sighed. "Maybe."

"How long have you been with these people?" Anna asked as they slowly sunk to the ground.

"This whole group? About a month but it's been longer with some of the others. About six months with Rosita and eight with Eugene. I had a different group before but one by one, they died off. Ran into Glenn and Tara originally. They had just been separated from their group, which had been attacked by another group, then accidently met the rest by being lured into a trap set by a group of cannibals."

"Cannibals?" Anna asked in surprise.

Abraham chuckled. "Yeah, I'll tell you more about it another day, but we got away and we've been slowly making our way North."

"Merle and I haven't had that exciting of a time. We did have this place for a while, we were only planning on staying at temporarily, but Merle started getting cozy. Then this group found us and ran us out. Other than that, we haven't had a lot of encounters with other people, but we've stayed pretty deep in the woods." Anna opened her mouth to say more but frowned when she noticed Merle and Daryl pressing their backs to the barn door as it bounced, seemingly in the wind.

Abraham looked over to where she'd been staring as she got up and rushed over. He was hot on her heels as she slammed her shoulder into the door on the other side of Merle and put her weight into it as Abraham shoved his sizable mass against the other side of Daryl. Suddenly, one by one, the others appeared and put their weight into the door, everyone doing their best to keep those massive doors shut. At first Anna thought it had been the ever intensifying storm that had been blowing the doors open but realized that it was walkers on the other side, trying to push their way in.

The storm suddenly reached a climax, the thunder booming louder than before, the wind rattling the building, replacing the banging of walker hands with a near constant push of wind and rain, drenching those closest to the door. It sounded like a hurricane was just outside their door and Anna wondered if in fact, a tornado had landed nearby and considering the cracking sounds she was now hearing, she was probably not far off.

For what must have been an hour, they pressed themselves against the doors but eventually the wind and rain did stop and they all stumbled away from the door, exhausted and sunk to the ground, laying on their sides, Anna being fortunate to have a fluffy pillow and drifted off to sleep.

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So, I didn't do my little authors note the last chapter like I normally do, kinda forgot. By the time I realized it, I'd already posted it and thought, "Aw screw it." So yes, this is a request I'm doing for one of my readers and hopefully I haven't let anyone down. Again, I'll try to get chapters out as quickly as possible! I hope you enjoyed!

-Shockra


	3. Chapter 3

Good evening all! So it's finally here! But I warn you, it's only been three quarters edited so there may be errors...although half the time there is still errors even when I full edit it...I really need a Beta reader! Anyway without further adieu!

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The next morning, Anna woke up feeling happier and more hopeful than she had in a long time, although looking around the room, she saw that she was the only one feeling that way. Everyone around her looked downcast and defeated as they went about cleaning their weapons or just staring off into space. Even Abraham, while more uplifted than the rest of them, seemed down cast.

Heavy footsteps that stopped in front of her, made Anna look up from where she sat cleaning her assault rifle, the only weapon she had with bullets still in it. When she looked up, she saw that Merle was standing there, looking down at her with his hunting rifle propped on his hip, with a cigarette that he'd bummed off his brother in his mouth.

"Get up. Let's see if we can find some chow. These people ain't got no steam left in 'em." Merle said, none too quietly.

"I'm coming with you." Daryl volunteered as he strung his crossbow across his back.

"Sure." Anna agreed, sliding the last piece of her rifle into place then picked up the bow she still carried.

The three of them, followed by Juno, had just started for the door when it cracked open and Maggie stepped inside. "Hey." She said as she walked in with a man Anna didn't remember seeing, right behind her. "Everyone…" She continued but Daryl must've seen the man at that moment and slid his crossbow off his back and aimed it at the new man's head in one swift motion.

"This is Aaron." She continued as Sasha followed closely behind the man with her assault rifle pointed at the man's back.

Satisfied that Sasha had the man under control, Daryl moved passed Maggie and Aaron, followed by Rosita, and they both looked outside for more intruders before closing the doors.

"We took his weapons and we took his gear." Maggie continued, this time to Rick as he approached with a murderous look on his face, which contrasted severely with the baby on his hip.

Daryl gave the man a quick pat down to be certain, then stepped back as the man looked around the room, trying to hide his fear. The man had essentially walked into the wolf's den and he had no way of protecting himself, even Anna was feeling uncomfortable in the suddenly very tense air that filled the barn. Everyone stood with their weapons either pointed at the man or firmly in their hands ready to aim if they felt threatened.

"Hi." The man said, managing to keep his voice steady.

Right then, Judith started crying as she sat on Rick's hip, probably sensing the tension in the room, so Rick nodded to his son. Carl stepped forward and took his sister from his father and tried to calm her as Rick looked back at Aaron.

"It's nice to meet you." Aaron said putting his hand out and stepping towards Rick but stopping when the aggression level stepped up several levels.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked, still glaring at Aaron, presumably speaking to Maggie.

The difference in welcome from when Anna and Merle had arrived and when Aaron had arrived, was completely different. While there was some initial hostility when the two of them showed up, they were quickly accepted by the group…even though there were plenty of disgruntled glares shot off towards Merle. But they had the benefit of having family already apart of this group, Aaron didn't have that.

Maggie walked from to Aaron's side to Rick, holding out the pistol that Aaron had had on him. Rick inspected the small six shooter, checking the chamber for bullets then looked down the barrel. When he was done his inspection, he looked up at Aaron once more as he stuffed the gun in his belt.

"Is there something you need?" Rick finally asked the man.

"He has a camp nearby." Sasha said, her expression somewhat hostile and suspicious. "He wants us to _audition_ for membership."

"I wish there was another word." Aaron said. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on Friday night." Anna snorted slightly at his joke but she was apparently the only who saw humor in what he said. "Um, and its not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But its not my call. It's my job to convince you all to follow me back home. I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" Aaron finally asked, looking back to where she still stood holding her rifle on him.

Sasha seemed unhappy with being told to do something, but she stepped forward, pausing to hand her weapon to Noah before sliding the pack off her back and handing it to Rick. Once she'd handed the backpack to Rick, she reclaimed her weapon and resumed standing guard over Aaron. Rick knelt down and started rummaging through the pack as Aaron continued speaking.

"There's no way I could convince you to come with me to my community. That's why I brought those." Aaron said as Rick pulled out a brown envelope. "I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old picture store last…"

"No one gives a shit!" Daryl growled.

This whole time Merle had just been leaning back against a post, watching events with a look of boredom but he slowly straightened up, grabbed Anna's elbow and pulled her back and whispered in her ear quietly.

"I don't like this, or these people. We should jus' get our brother's and cut our loses."

Anna looked back at the group, Rick had a bit of a mad, murderous look in his eye that made Anna more than a little uncomfortable, but she didn't get that sense from the others. They mostly just looked hungry and demoralized.

Anna looked back at Merle. "Not yet." She whispered back. "If this guy is for real, then we need to help these people get to his community and if he isn't, well they'll need our muscle. Besides, your brother doesn't seem inclined to want to leave his friends, nor will mine."

Merle pursed his lips as he looked over her shoulder at the group while Rick and Aaron still conversed. "Fine but no more than a couple of days."

Anna never got a chance to answer as Rick suddenly walked towards Aaron and decked him, knocking him unconscious and shocking everyone. Merle and Anna walked over and stared in shock as Aaron laid in the dirt, unconscious. A couple of them stepped forward, pulled Aaron's hands behind him and bound them before sitting him up against a post.

Merle scoffed mirthlessly. "Well Officer Happy is dead, ain't he? You're turnin' into the thing you've been turnin' your nose up to. Shit, I think yer worse then me now."

Rick glared at Merle. "He's a danger to everyone here, including you, Merle." Rick said then marched away but Michonne stopped him.

"Just so you're clear, that wasn't a 'let's attack the man' look." Michonne said, obviously as unhappy as Merle and Anna. "It was an 'he seems like an okay guy', look."

"We got to secure him, dump his pack." He replied to Michonne, much less angry when addressing her then when he'd addressed Merle. He turned to his son. "Let's see what this guy really is. Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction, they're coming for us. We might not know when or how, but they are."

Anna opened her mouth to say something, but Abraham was suddenly at her side and turned her towards one of the walls. Abraham peered out between the cracks in the wall looking for a threat while Anna just stared at her brother in disbelief.

"This guy is nuts!" Anna hissed as she pointed to Rick.

"That wasn't his shining moment, I'll admit but we've been through some seriously bad shit recently. They lost a whole community of their own before I met them, then we ran into a community of cannibals. He has reason to be suspicious. Quite frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't directed that suspicion at you."

"Well he can be suspiciously all he wants, we've been honest with him." Anna growled, still not happy.

Abraham sighed. "I know, I believe you. Just trust me, okay?"

Suddenly Aaron groaned and when Anna looked over at him, he chuckled. "That's one hell of a right cross there, Rick. You're being cautious, completely understand."

"How many people are out there?" Rick demanded then, when Aaron didn't immediately answer, he held out an orange colored gun. "This is a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

Aaron sighed. "Does it matter?"

"Yes." Rick responded firmly. "Yes, I do."

"I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because no matter what number I say…eight, thirty-two, four hundred and forty-four, zero…no matter what I say, you're not going to trust me."

"Well, its hard to trust anyone who smiles after being punched in the face." Rick retorted

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you on the road?" Aaron asked.

Almost everyone looked over at the bottles of water sitting on a stack of wooden crates. "How long you people been following us?" Daryl demanded as he marched towards Aaron.

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your tail. That family means something to you." Aaron said nodding towards Anna and Merle as they stood together once more, obviously they'd seen their little reunion. "Long enough to see that despite the lack of food ad water, you never turned on each other. You're survivors and you're people. Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world."

Everyone stared at the man for a moment then looked at Rick as he debated.

"I can get Juno to track his scent." Anna offered. "Lead us back to where he came from."

Rick looked from Anna's face to Juno, who stood staring intently at Aaron, ready to attack if she ordered him too, letting out a low growl. Rick looked back at Aaron.

"How many others are out there?" Rick asked stepping closer to Aaron.

Aaron blinked slightly, his eyes starting to get moist. "One." He said quietly then after a moment he shook his head slightly. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if its not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is real?" Aaron asked looking around the room. "What if I drove you to the community? All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch!"

"I'm not sure how all of us, are going to fit into the car you and your friend drove down here in." Rick replied somewhat snarkily.

Aaron shook his head. "We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us."

"And you parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol asked.

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route sixteen. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it."

"Yeah, you've really thought this through." Rick said still sounding skeptical.

Personally, Anna thought the man was telling the truth and she could see that some of the others were wanting to believe him also but were too scared to let themselves feel hope.

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd have done it here." Aaron said firmly. "You know, light the barn while you slept, pick you off as you ran for the only exit."

"Strategically speaking, he has a point." Anna said finally speaking off. "Or when they left the water in that cross-road. They could've easily surrounded you, killed you in the cross fire. Taken Daryl out when he separated from the group."

"That's right!" Aaron exclaimed, gratefully for at least one person's support. "You can trust me!"

"I'll check the cars out." Michonne volunteered.

"There aren't any cars." Rick said skeptically.

"There's only one way to find out." Michonne persisted.

"We don't need to find out." Rick countered.

"We do." Michonne disagreed firmly. "You know what you know, and you're sure of it, but I'm not."

"Me neither." Maggie added.

"I want to go with them." Anna said. "Juno and I can detect hostiles and explosives."

Rick shook his head. "Your way is dangerous, mine isn't."

"Passing up some place where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous." Michonne replied. "We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."

There was a bit of a pause then Glenn nodded his head slightly too. "Then I will too."

Rick sighed as he looked. "Abraham."

"Yeah." Abraham agreed, answering the unspoken question. "I'll walk with them."

Abraham gently grabbed her shoulder and the two of them headed for the door as Glenn had a quick conversation with Rick. First the six of them exited the building followed by everyone but Rick, who then made a perimeter around the barn. When they walked into the trees, Abraham let the others walk past them then took up the rear guard.

"How's your ammo?" Abraham asked as he watched Anna attach the leash to Juno's armor.

"Got nothin' for my pistol but I've got 'bout thirty bullets for my rifle and ten arrows." Anna answered as she kept her eyes moving.

"Since when did you know how to shoot a bow?" Abraham asked cocking an eyebrow, smirking ever so slightly. "I'm pretty sure the Navy never taught you that."

Anna chuckled. "Merle taught me. He can't really shoot one now, because he's short a hand but he used too. It's a better way to hunt."

"What's the deal with Merle?" Abraham asked a little more loudly, directing the question at the ones in front of them.

Michonne glanced over her shoulder then looked frontwards again. "He's first class asshole, to start."

"I won't disagree with that." Anna said chuckling again.

"Merle was apart of our original group." Glenn said sounding annoyed, just thinking about Merle. "He was a violent drug addict, who put one of our supply gathering missions at risk…so we left him on a roof in Atlanta."

"Which is how he lost his hand." Anna added. "And why he kinda hates ya'll."

"We felt bad and went back for him, but he was already gone." Glenn continued. "Later Maggie and I accidently ran into him, trying to find supplies for Judith when she was first born. He took us prisoner and him and his boss, the guy who destroyed our home, they tortured us."

"Merle just wanted to find his brother." Anna said, feeling like she needed to defend the guy after what he'd done for her. "He went about it wrong, but the Governor and his group were the only people he had at the time, and that was how they did things."

Michonne glared over her shoulder at Anna. "You sound like you actually like the guy."

Anna shrugged as they broke from the cover of the trees onto the road. "I didn't initially, but the guy grows on you after a while. He's trying to change, you know, but he's lived one way for so long that he finds it hard to live any other way. He's trying to be more like Daryl."

"He hasn't really said all that much, which is a first for Merle." Maggie added.

"Merle left your group because he didn't fit in and knew he never would. He thought he was holding his brother back, so he left." Anna said, still keeping her eyes moving.

"Taking me hostage as he went." Michonne growled.

"And he willingly let you go." Anna said with a nonchalant shrug. "He regretted it, but like I said, he's trying. I don't think you understand the level of awfulness that him and his brother lived through _before_ this all happened. There's a reason they're so good at surviving, because they've never stopped."

"I find it hard to believe that Merle would tell you something like that." Glenn said skeptically.

"It was like pulling teeth to get Merle to share anything but when there is just two of you and when you can be just as big of an ass hole as him, you eventually get people like him to open up. He actually trusts me quite a lot."

Abraham laughed. "So he got to see your firey side, did he?"

Anna smirked as she smacked her brother. "Shut up and focus, all of you."

Abraham chuckled again. "She's right, eyes up, guns up. We need to focus on what we're doing. You see someone coming at us, open fire."

"That's a little extreme ain't it?" Anna asked frowning which in turn made Abraham frown.

"You've obviously had a completely different experience then the rest of us, haven't you?" Rosita asked from the front of the pack

"No, it's fair question." Maggie said. "We see someone, and we shoot them?"

"Yeah, what if they're like us? What if Aaron is telling the truth?" Michonne asked, adding her own question. "What if they have nothing to do with this?"

"We're six people walking with guns." Glenn said. "No one's coming up to say hello."

"But that's exactly what happened." Michonne said, giving Glenn proverbial tweak in the nose.

"If it's someone like us, we should be afraid of them." Glenn said. "He said he was watching us, right? Which means he saw us yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?" Anna asked confused.

"We had a pack of walkers on our six, we ignored it for most of the day but then we came across the bridge with deep ravine, so we decided to take care of them there, the easy way." Abraham explained.

"After everything we've done, why would he want someone like us joining him?" Glenn continued.

"Maybe they haven't had to face reality yet, and they think you can protect them." Anna suggested.

"We saved a priest, didn't we?" Michonne added, giving him another tweak, Anna was really starting to like her. "Saved a girl who rolled up with the Governor. Saved a crazy lady with a sword."

They finally came into view of a fallen tree with a car and an RV parked on the road just beyond it. They all raised their guns, looking for attackers but Juno was mostly at ease, casting the occasional look towards a field but Anna chalked it up to being a deer or some other kind of animal.

They carefully climbed over the fallen trees and just as they made it to the car, there was a rustling in the trees and they all instantly took cover, pointing their guns at trees. Eventually two walkers broke from the cover of the trees, making everyone sigh in relief.

Abraham lowered his gun. "I got 'em."

" _We_ got 'em." Rosita added as she too, lowered her gun.

Anna lowered her gun and watched as Abraham approached the closest walker and grabbed it by the collar as Rosita walked passed them to the other walker. Abraham suddenly lost his grip on his walker and fell on his knees, giving Anna a heart attack but Juno was all over it before any one could do anything, grabbing it by the neck and thrashing around. Abraham recovered quickly then pulled Juno off the walker and plunged his blade into it's skull before it could get to its feet.

"That's one vicious dog." Glenn said, eyeing him cautiously as Juno trotted over to Anna and watched her.

"He is a war dog. Don't worry, he won't attack you without me ordering him too. Walkers are a whole different beast." Anna said as she gave him a good scratch.

"He can tell the difference?" Rosita asked, shocked.

"Can't you?" Anna asked sarcastically.

Rosita's expression darkened. "Of course." She growled.

"A dog has forty times greater sense of smell than us. If you can smell them, a dog most certainly can smell them and Malinois are quite smart, although I'm sure any dog can tell the difference." Anna said as she picked up his leash and walked him over to the car which was nearest. "Search." She commanded him as she tapped the tires.

"What are you looking for?" Maggie asked, clearly fascinated.

"We suspect this might be a trap, right?" Anna asked as she let Juno guide her around the car. "They might've booby trapped the vehicles. If there's any explosives, Juno will find them."

When Anna and Juno finished with the car, Glenn started searching the car as Juno did a quick circuit around the RV. When she was done, Abraham grabbed the door held up his hand, fully intending on going in first but Anna was okay with that. By now she was almost certain that there was no booby trap waiting or any person laying in way to ambush them, Juno was just too relaxed.

She let Abraham and Rosita enter without any protest and, instead, stood with Maggie as she kept watch outside. When Abraham came out of the RV, he was grinning ear to ear as he stared at a can of food. When Anna saw what he was staring at, she just rolled her eyes, he was still such a child. He always claimed he bought the cans of the _s'ghetti rings_ for his kids, but he'd loved those things since they were kids and practically lived off them before he met Ellen.

"Glenn, can you handle this rig?" Abraham asked as he finally looked up from drooling over the can of food. "I wouldn't mind a moment a lone with my sister."

"Yeah, I can drive it." Glenn said, climbing out of the car.

After everyone helped clear the massive tree, Glenn followed as Maggie and Rosita climbed up into the RV, and Abraham climbed into the still open driver side door. Anna opened up the back door to let Juno jump into the backseat before joining her brother in the front. Abraham put the car into gear and drove for the barn.

"So really, what's up with you and that Merle?" Abraham asked, looking so serious that it made Anna crack up.

Anna wiped a tear from her eye as she settled herself down. "We're just friends, you dolt. Fellow survivors. And what about you?" Anna asked cocking an eyebrow.

Abraham looked at her confused for a moment then it suddenly dawned on him. "Oh you mean Rosita."

"Yeah, of course I mean Rosita." Anna said as she rolled her eyes. "When I threw my arms around and saw how happy we were to see each other, she looked like she was ready to shoot me."

Abraham cleared his throat awkwardly. "I…she was the first woman I met…only woman I've met until I met Rick's group. I thought she was the only woman left, for a while…and I got lonely."

"Uh-huh." Anna said cynically.

"She's a good woman. Once you get to know her, I think you'll like her." Abraham continued, sounding a little nervous.

"Why do I get the impression that none of them know that you had a family once." Anna asked. It actually bugged her a little that he seemed to have moved on so quickly. He lost his wife, his children, he shouldn't be hooking up with other women.

"I know this will sound awful but, it was easier to continue on, forgetting them. It's too painful to think about them. I _loved_ them, and I _miss_ them but if I hold on to their memory, I'll never be able to move on. So, I filed the memory of them away."

Anna shook her head, annoyed. "That's wrong. You could be the only person left on this planet to remember them and you refuse to."

Abraham's face flushed with anger. "You did lose the love of your life! The two best things I ever made! Don't tell me what's right and what's wrong!" He shouted at her angrily.

Whenever Abraham shouted at her, it was a knee jerk reaction to yell back but, in this instance, she decided it was better for her to remain calm. So, Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly then shushed a growling Juno.

"You're right. I don't know. I just…just forget it."

* * *

I thought about ending this chapter with them travelling with Aaron to Alexandria but it felt like it'd make the chapter too long, so I decided to make that its own chapter. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter and sorry for the wait!

-Shockra


	4. Chapter 4

Happy New Years everyone! Sorry to my reviewer, elljayde, who requested for this to be a Daryl/OC story but this was a request for a Merle/OC from one of my followers. If you have an idea of your own, feel free to message me! Anyways, I hope that 2019 is kind to everyone!

* * *

Anna sat at the back of the RV beside Merle as she stared out of the window. After they had returned to the barn, Rick had ordered them to remove everything they'd found within the vehicles and stack it around the small table that had been in the barn. Anna had thought it a fruitless endeavour since they'd only put it back, but she did it anyways. After a stern speech, Michonne had managed to convince Rick that they were going to let Aaron lead them to the community he spoke of.

Rick had decided they would go at night, too paranoid to let their potential allies see them first. Anna partially understood how he was thinking and even partially agreed with it but she also worried that it might be too dangerous as well. They were travelling at night in an area they had next to no information on.

"Still wanna stick with these idiots?" Merle muttered as he looked over at her.

Anna sighed. "Yes and no, slowly moving more towards no. I get why yer not a fan of Rick."

Merle snorted. "Yet both of our brothers seem to be his number one fans."

Suddenly they veered to the side, making Anna practically fall face first into Merle's lap as their vehicle thumped into something that sounded like human bodies. Merle snickered as he shoved her face away from his balls and got to his feet.

"Ain't no time for a blow job." Merle snickered as he made for the front. Anna got up to followed but then smashed her face into Merle's broad back as Abraham threw the RV into reverse. Merle chuckled as he looked back over his shoulder at her. "Shit girl! Have you got no balance?"

"Shut up, Merle!" Anna growled as they both held on for dear life as Abraham suddenly turned, stopped then floored it again.

"What the hell is goin' on!" Merle hollered as they continued on their journey towards the front.

"Ran into a massive herd of walkers." Daryl said as he stared through the windshield. "Rick and Glenn's vehicle got through."

"Oh goodie." Merle said sarcastically.

"We're gonna try and connect with them a mile down the road." Abraham said as he slowed down and took a right.

Just as Abraham accelerated once more, a flare was shot up and lit up the sky just down the highway in front of them.

"Bitch nuts! Hold on!" Abraham exclaimed then floored it once more.

They sped down the road as fast as the RV would go for a short distance then Anna practically spread out on the console as Abraham slammed on the brakes. Abraham chuckled as he helped her up while everyone else piled out of the RV.

"Sorry, sis." Abraham said as they also exited, the RV together.

The rest of the group had surrounded a man who must've sent up the flare and were fighting off the walkers as Maggie and Sasha carried the man between them. Abraham and Anna stood by the door and fired at the walkers nearest their group as they made their progress back towards the RV. When they finally reached the door, they filed into the RV once more with Abraham and Anna filing in last.

"There's a town nearby." The man said through gritted teeth as Carol and Maggie rolled the mans pant leg up. "We can wait for Aaron and your friends there."

"What happened?" Maggie asked as she inspected his leg.

"I was walking back to our community, when they snuck up on me. I tried to climb the water tower, but I slipped and fell…I think I broke my ankle." He said then hissed. "I'm Eric by the way. Thank you for saving me."

"Your ankle is definitely broken." Maggie said then looked over at Carol. "Can you help me set this?"

Ten minutes later, Abraham rolled to as stop once more, in an alley in the town that Eric had given them instructions too. Everyone gathered their things and prepared to depart before they started for the door.

"Daryl, Merle you help Eric here, Annie you take point and I'll take the rear." Abraham ordered.

"Who died and made you king?" Merle growled.

"Just shut it and do what Abe says." Anna growled with equal venom as she readied her gun.

Daryl looked at his brothers back in surprise as he turned and roughly grabbed Eric's arm.

"Gently!" Maggie protested as Daryl grabbed Eric's other arm and together the brothers hoisted the man too his feet.

Anna looked back to make sure everyone was ready then unclipped the leash from Juno's collar and opened the door, looking around carefully. When she saw nothing dangerous, she stepped out with Juno at her side, then made a bee line for a door with a sign over it that said Supply Room. They made it to the door without any problems, then they made a wedge formation in front of the door. Anna held up her hand, counted down from three, then swung the door open. There were three walkers crowding immediately by the door but were easily dispatched before Anna stepped through the door. She shined her flashlight around the room, but no more walkers appeared.

Once they had finished clearing the room, Daryl and Merle set Eric on the ground and then Daryl and Noah went back outside to gather the candles they'd seen in the RV as Carol checked Eric's leg. Once they had gotten Eric comfortable, everyone settled into waiting as Daryl stayed outside and was joined by Merle, keeping an eye out on the street hoping to see Rick and the others if they came their way.

"Why does your dog wear a vest?" Eric asked as she walked over to him. "He kind of scares me."

"She actually." Anna corrected as she sat down beside him. Juno stood by his feet staring at him intently, not being aggressive but ready to spring into action if Anna ordered her. "It's a Kevlar vest, she's a Navy SEAL, like me."

"Is she dangerous?" Eric asked as he eyed her fearfully.

"She can be. She'll only attack if ordered or provoked. So long as you don't attack me or pull a gun, your throat should stay intact." Anna said smirking.

Anna heard a bang on the door in the other room and stood up to look through the door way to see a bunch of their group rush outside. After a few minutes Aaron burst inside calling Eric's name, when he saw Anna standing in the door way her rushed her way and she stepped out of his way as she looked back at Juno.

"Easy, Juno." Anna said as she started to growl as Aaron rushed to Eric's side. "Come." She said as she walked to through the door.

They walked back to where everyone now stood inside. She wandered over to where Abraham stood next Rosita then knelt down and dug out her little collapsible bowl from one of the pockets that was in Juno's vest and poured water into it so that Juno could drink.

"You seem pretty attached to that dog." Rosita said, observing them.

Anna smirked slightly. "I am and she isn't just a dog, she's…"

"Your partner." Rosita finished rolling her eyes.

"If you didn't want to hear the answer, don't ask the damn question." Anna growled.

"Annie be nice. Rosita, she has a point. And what's wrong with her being attached to her dog?" Abraham asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Nothing." Rosita said looking up at Abraham a little ruefully. "I'm just tired and not a fan of dogs."

The room suddenly went quiet as Aaron came back out, eventually followed by Rick, looking like he had something to say. "Thank you." Aaron started. "You saved Eric. I owe you. All of you. And I will make sure that debt is paid in full when we get to our community. When we get to Alexandria." Everyone looked around at each other, happy to finally have a name to where they were going. "Now, I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather not do any more driving for tonight. Maybe we can hit the road tomorrow morning."

"That sounds fine." Rick responded, shocking everyone. "But if we're staying here for the night, you're staying over there." Rick continued pointing to a corner of the room that was furthest from Eric.

Maggie stepped forward. "Do you really think we got to do that?"

"It's the safe play, we don't know you." Rick said to Aaron.

"The only way you're going to stop me from being with him right now, is by shooting me." Aaron said passionately.

There was a long drawn out silence, only interrupted by Merle's sound of disgust as he turned away and walked out of the door. Finally, Aaron moved to push passed Rick as Rick reached for his gun, but Glenn immediately stepped in between the two as Juno let out a low growl, responding to the tension in the room, looking up at Anna.

"Rick, he told us where his camp is." Glenn said, trying to talk Rick down. "And he really was only travelling with one person. They're both unarmed. One of thems got a broken ankle. I want us to be safe, too. I can't give up everything else. I know what I said, but it doesn't matter."

Rick stared at Glenn then nodded his head. "Alright."

Anna turned then and headed outside, also sick of these people for the moment. She was surprised to find Merle leaning against the wall immediately outside the door, smoking another cigarette. He'd tensed when he'd heard the door open but relaxed slightly when saw Anna exiting the building.

"Thought you'd left for good." Anna said as she strode over and leaned against the wall beside him.

Merle snickered. "Thought 'bout it but you and my brother were still in there."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "You'd stay for me?"

Merle turned from leaning on his back to leaning on his shoulder. "Sure. Yer the only friend I got and Daryl's the only family I got."

"I thought you said he was better off without you." Anna asked, also turning to face Merle.

"And I largely still believe that, but that Rick has fallen off his rocker, he's nuts. I don't want Daryl to get into a situation like I had." Merle said staring at her intently.

"And what if I wanted to leave but Daryl didn't?" Anna asked smirking slightly.

Merle gave her a sideways smirk. "Depends." Merle said, reaching up and pushing some of her loose strands out of her face, his cigarette still in between his fingers. "But I think I'd probably go with you."

"And why would you do that?" Anna asked trying to not blush as Merle slowly ran his fingers over her cheek.

"So, I can continue to do this." Merle said, then leaned in and kissed her softly on her lips.

"I thought you thought I was a pain in the ass." Anna breathed when Merle pulled back a little.

"You may talk too much and be a city slicker, but you learn fast, got an interesting personality and got one fine ass." Merle said as he ran his hand down her side to her ass then grabbed it.

"Well ain't you smooth." Anna said as she chuckled and stepped back. "You had plenty of a chance to hit on me when we were on our own, but you chose now? Don't you think that's a little odd."

Merle chuckled as he put his back to the wall once more, throwing the butt of his cigarette down in front of him. "I just went with the flow. We were too busy survivin' before and I dunno…it just didn't happen then."

Anna laughed. "Well yer lucky that I tend to like the bad boys, even one-armed bad boys."

Merle grinned. "Lucky me."

111

The following morning, they all piled into the two vehicles. Michonne crammed into the back of the sedan with Maggie and Glenn while Rick drove, and Daryl sat shotgun. Anna and Merle sat cheek to cheek on one of the benches near the front as Eric and Aaron sitting in the back. While the trip was largely quiet, with most of the conversation happening between Tara and Eugene as they played cards, and Abraham kept a near constant eye on Anna, staring at her with the assistance of his extra wide rear-view mirror.

"Abraham." Rosita said, getting his attention and pointing out of the windshield as they rounded the bend, revealing Washington DC's cityscape. Abraham looked over at Rosita and smiled, which she returned. "Eyes on the road, champ."

Abraham looked forward once more, glancing at Anna once more before paying attention to the road. Eugene suddenly bent towards Anna, his card game done.

"Abraham never mentioned having a sibling let alone a massively hot sister." Eugene said earning a glare from both Abraham and Merle.

"Why would he mention me? Did you tell him or your other friends about your family? It's best not to think about the family you don't know what happened to." Anna said shrugging. "It's less painful that way."

"Were you two not close?" Eugene asked.

Anna's face scrunched. "What makes you think that? We were _very_ close!"

"To be able to forget one another so easily, suggests a lack of affection." Eugene said shrugging.

"More like a strong survival instinct." Anna growled. "And trust me it ain't easy. Both Abe and I have served in wars, our father also served, I guess disconnecting was something we learned at a young age. Thinking about all the people you've lost, only serves to drain you, so its better to only focus on who's with you."

"Ignore Eugene." Rosita said, twisting in her seat. "He's really smart but…lacks in a few areas."

Merle scoffed. "And people think _I'm_ an ass hole." Merle muttered.

They all fell into a silence once more as they continued down the road. Tara, Noah and Eugene had just started another card game while Anna decided to work out the burrs and knots out of Juno's fur when Abraham cursed and the engine stalled. Everyone looked up as the RV glided to a halt and Abraham smashed his fist on the steering wheel before standing up.

"What's happening?" Carol asked as she moved her legs out of the way as Abraham squeezed by.

"Something to do with the battery." Abraham growled as he exited the RV.

All but Aaron and Eric exited the vehicle and spread out around the vehicle as Rick and the others came over to the RV. Abraham kicked the RV's wheel's angrily. "Motherdick!" He exclaimed angrily.

"Calm down, Abraham. I'll take a look." Glenn said as he walked to the front of the RV.

Anna leaned up against the bumper of the RV with Rosita, Sasha and Tara as Merle and Daryl paced on top of the RV, looking for trouble. Everyone else scattered around the RV, waiting while Abraham and Glenn worked.

"You and Abraham have many physical similarities with the red hair, blue eye but personality wise, you two seem very different." Tara observed as she watched her. "You seem a lot calmer and I haven't heard a single weird swear or saying."

Anna laughed. "You think I'm calm? Well I suppose you haven't known me all that long and Abe has one hell of a temper, so that might make me seem calmer. I don't think Merle thinks I'm calm. As for the weird things he says, well he's always had a…unique way of thinking. Part of what made him such a good tactician."

"Is your dog really what you say she is?" Rosita asked.

"A war dog? Yeah, she is." Anna said as she looked over to where Juno was sniffing the grass. "She's nine, though, and I think they were thinking of retiring her. Which is probably why she stayed with me for as long as she did."

Suddenly the RV's engine roared to life and several people cheered. As Merle and Daryl climbed down the ladder, Anna watched suspiciously as Rick walked off into the trees. When he came back, everyone climbed into their vehicles, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie joining them in the RV while Carl and Judith went into the car with Michonne and Rick.

The environment in the RV was almost jubilant as they drove, the sight of Washington making things even more real for them, but they were all reluctant to fully let themselves be pulled into the emotion. They drove for another hour, with Rick in the lead this time, before the road ended in a big steel gate, attached to equally big steel walls; just like the pictures that Aaron had shown them.

Everyone in the RV watched Rick's shadow in the car as he assessed their surroundings but finally after a several minutes, he turned the car off and got out of it. After Rick had gotten out, he took Judith from Sophia, as everyone climbed out of the RV and approached the gate. Anna put the leash on Juno once more, to make sure that Juno didn't accidently attack someone. She stood next Merle, who stood next to his brother as he clutched his primed crossbow.

"You'll have to teach me how to use that." Anna muttered as she looked passed Merle at Daryl.

The corner of Daryl's mouth twitched but he was too tense to give her much more than that. As Aaron helped Eric to the gate, it slid open part of the ways and they all just stopped and stared at the gate dumbly. Suddenly a metal garbage can beside Daryl, fell over, startling everyone with Daryl immediately firing in the direction, as the gate opened the rest of the way. Daryl bent over and picked up what he'd just shot, with Merle looking over his shoulder curiously, then looked at Aaron and the new guy as he held up a possum.

"We brought dinner." He said to them.

Merle laughed loudly as he thumped his brother on the back and Anna shook her head as she chuckled. The man at the gate, looked a little frightened as he looked them over, and Anna didn't blame him. Despite having two teenagers and a baby, they were armed to the teeth, dirty and had several brawny and menacing looking men among them; they looked as dangerous as they were.

Aaron waved his hand at them. "It's okay." He said partly to them and partly to the gate guard. "Come on in, guys."

They all cautiously walked through the gate, inside the walls and once they were inside, the gate closed behind them, making them all nervous once more. The new guy looked at them again, then finally spoke up again.

"Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons." He instructed them. "Stay, you hand them over."

Rick stepped forward. "We don't know if we want to stay." He said, his colt in hand.

Aaron turned to the other man. "It's fine, Nicholas."

"If we were going to use them, we'd have started already." Rick stated.

"Let them talk with Deanna first." Aaron said.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham asked from beside Anna and Merle as they now stood at the back of the group.

"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place." Aaron answered, then looked at Rick. "Rick, why don't you start."

Rick turned back to the group, then looked passed them as he squinted at the scenery beyond the gate and at first Anna thought he was going to tell them they were leaving but then he nodded at something. "Sasha." He said, then Anna turned and saw what he saw, a walker. Sasha turned, lined up the shot, then fired, a perfect shot.

Rick turned back to the man who Aaron had called Nicholas, as he stared in awe. "It's a good thing we're here." Rick said as he started forward.

They all followed Aaron as he walked down the street into what looked like fully intact suburban neighborhood. As they walked down the street, the residents all stopped and stared at them as they walked by, the people looking like the breakout had never happened. Their clothes were clean and in one piece, as was their skin, the streets and the houses. Aaron led them to the heart of the community to the nicest house they'd seen so far.

"Rick, come with me. The rest of you wait here, she'll want to talk to each of you." Aaron said then the two of them went inside alone.

They all huddled together and immediately started whispering to each other.

"What you do you all think?" Abraham asked.

Anna shrugged. "Seems legit. I mean they have kids running around, that has to count for something now days."

"It looks like the outbreak never happened here." Michonne noted. "It makes me both hopeful and uneasy."

"These people have no idea what it means to survive, it's like they've never had to." Daryl muttered, still looking a little nervous but for another reason.

"This place has a whole better feel than any place we've been to since the prison, hell, it feels safer." Glenn added, nodding his head in approval.

"Just because it looks nice on the surface, it doesn't mean it is below the surface." Carol said shaking her head. "Look at Woodbury, from what Michonne was saying, it looked nice on the surface as well. We should still be cautious."

Michonne shook her head. "No. This place has a completely different vibe. The second I stepped inside those walls, something felt off but this place…it just feels green, inexperienced."

Merle scoffed. "It wasn't always like that, it just became that. The Governor's mind warped over time, he wasn't that bad in the beginning. This place could be just like Woodbury, they might just be better at hidin' it."

"I was never in Woodbury, but I don't think this place is like that, I agree with Michonne. Somehow these people have managed escape the worst of things." Anna said as she looked behind her.

They all settled into their own conversations, as they waited. Rick was gone for about fifteen minutes before he re-emerged from the house, followed by an older woman. When he finally stopped in front of their group, he studied them briefly, then indicated the older woman beside him.

"This is Deanna." Rick said introducing her to them. "She had requested that we turn over all our weapons, and I've agreed."

"When you leave these walls, you will get them all back, I assure you." Deanna said politely.

A woman with dark hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail appeared with a cart and after a moment's hesitation, Rick put his colt and machete on the cart. The others followed his lead, trusting Rick's judgement, putting all their weapons on the cart all except Merle who just glared at Rick. Anna nudged his ribs earning a glare from him. With an irritated sigh, Merle finally relented, dropping his hunting rifle unhappily onto the stack, then removing the blade from his stump and dropping it on the pile as well.

Carol for some reason, acted like she could barely hoist the assault rifle on her shoulder, then once she'd set her weapons on the cart, rubbed her shoulder and looked around herself uncomfortably. Anna first put her pistol and assault rifle on the cart, then lifted her bow and quiver from her back and set it on the cart. Daryl was the last to disarm and he did not seem happy about setting his weapons down, as he walked back over to her and Merle and glared at the ground as he clung to his possum.

"Thank you for your co-operation." Deanna said, then looked at Carl. "How about I talk with you next? Then you and your father can go to the house together."

Carl looked over at his father, who nodded his head, then Carl followed after Deanna with Judith still in his arms, as they retreated back into the house. Less than ten minutes later, they both returned, Carl walking down to his father then two of them followed Aaron as Deanna looked straight at Maggie.

"Maggie, is it?" Deanna asked, and Maggie nodded. "You're up next."

Everyone decided to sit on the ground and the steps as they waited their turn. Glenn then Sasha went next followed by Daryl and Abraham before Anna was finally led into the house to where Deanna waited in the living room. When Anna entered the living room, Deanna stood and indicated the cushioned chair across from her.

"Why don't you take a seat?" Deanna asked as she once more took a seat.

Anna sat down in the chair, then dropped Juno's leash, an indication that she could relax.

"I imagine the dog is yours?" Deanna asked smiling at Juno.

"She is. Her name is Juno." Anna said as she scratched her head.

"She's beautiful. Is she a German Shephard?" Deanna asked as she reached towards her, offering her hand for Juno to smell.

Anna laughed as she shook her head. "No, a Belgian Malinois. A common mistake. She's Navy SEAL, like me."

Deanna looked at her confused for a moment but then her face cleared as she understood her meaning. "Oh, is she a bomb detecting dog?" Deanna asked genuinely curious.

"That's one of the things she does. She also smells out people, either to track specific down or to find random people in their hiding places."

"Interesting." Deanna said smiling as she sat back. "We have other dogs in the community but they're just pets. I'm sorry, could you state your name and former profession, for posterity sake." Deanna requested, indicating the camera over her shoulder. "I hope you don't mind."

Anna shrugged, not really caring. "I'm Annabelle Ford. I was a Senior Petty Officer with the SEALs, K-9 Division."

"Ford? Any relation to Abraham?" Deanna asked as she wrote something down.

"He's my older brother. We actually just reconnected for the first time since things went down, the day before we met Aaron."

"Oh, really? Well that worked out well for you!" Deanna exclaimed, genuinely pleased. "What other talents do you have? Are you married?"

"Not married and no other family other than Abe…that I'm aware of." Anna said as she thought. "I'm good at blending in with new people. Abe and I are army brats, we spent our wholes lives constantly getting to know people. I'm pretty good with my hands. I can fix most basic things and building things." Anna chuckled as a memory surfaced out of no where's. "When Abe and I were kids, we both built ourselves our own race cars outta wood our uncle had in his garage, then decided it was a good idea to race them down a dirt hill nearby. Abe, of course, won but got a broken arm and a black eye as a conciliation for his victory. Our mother was rippin' mad and lucky for Abe, our dad was on tour."

"Sounds like something my sons would do." Deanna said smiling. "You said you just met up with your brother and Rick's group, where had you been previously?"

Anna went into a lengthy explanation of her journey up until she reunited with Abraham and when she was done, Deanna seemed satisfied, told her to report to her in the morning and let her go. When she went outside, Daryl and Abraham were still waiting with Aaron and when she joined them, Aaron guided them up the street. He pointed out a couple of the houses and their occupants before coming to the end of a street and stopping.

"These two houses here are where you and your friends will be staying for the time being." Aaron said as he stood on the street. "We'll eventually find more spaces for all of you but for the time being, this is home."

"Thanks." Abraham said as he offered Aaron his hand. "And sorry for being so prickly. Michonne was probably right, we've been out there for too long."

Aaron took his hand and shook it. "I understand, you've all survived this long for a reason. Now why don't you all go inside. We have running water and power and there should be some fresh clothes and some food inside."

They nodded then walked up the steps as Aaron went back to Deanna's house to shepherd more of their people to the house. When they stepped through the front door, Anna stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the kitchen before her.

"What's the hold up?" Abraham complained then shoved her forward. "Good gracious ignatious!" Abraham exclaimed as he saw what had stopped her. "We never had a place so nice." Abraham continued as he ran his hand over the granite counter tops.

"Mom woulda been in heaven, cooking in here." Anna said as she ran her hand over the stainless-steel stove.

"You don't cook?" Daryl asked smirking slightly. "Merle'll be disappointed."

"I have a passable ability, which he is well aware of." Anna said throwing an apple at him, which he caught easily.

Sasha suddenly trotted down the steps, pausing on the bottom step, a little startled by their presence. When she collected herself, she indicated the steps over her shoulder.

"Showers free and there are clothes in the closet in the far bedroom." Sasha said as she finally stepped down into the kitchen.

"Where are the others?" Daryl asked.

"I think Rick and Carl are checking out the other house and I don't know where Maggie and Glenn are, probably the other shower."

Abe grinned as he snorted then waved towards the steps. "Ladies first." He said to Anna.

Anna smiled, gave her brother a hug before running up the stairs, taking two at a time. Once at the top of the steps, the hall turned immediately to the left then turned again after ten feet. Along the walls was a bunch of doors with only one being closed. So, Anna walked into each room, found the clothes that Sasha had mentioned and picked out a plain white tank top, a pair of jeans and fresh pair of underwear, then finally entered the bathroom and closed the door.

When Anna stepped into the shower, she sighed as the hot water ran over her shoulders. After scrubbing herself thoroughly then brushing out the tangles in her hair and then let her red waves hang loosely down her back for the first time since she'd left the base. After she'd brushed her teeth, Anna walked down the stairs once more to find Carol in the kitchen with strips of meat on a frying pan and Sasha lounging on the couch with Glenn and Maggie.

"Have you showered yet?" Anna asked as she walked over to Carol.

Carol smiled at her kindly. "Nope. Do you think you can look after this while I go up?"

"Sure. Although I can't promise I won't burn it." Anna said walking around the island.

"I'll help." Maggie said as she entered the kitchen.

111

An hour later everyone gathered around the table and island, eating and talking. The air around the kitchen was cautiously optimistic as they all were smiling but Anna could see people constantly looking around, waiting for the other shoe to fall. When she'd first seen Rick step into the house, she hadn't immediately recognized him and thought some strange man was walking into the house but when Carl followed behind him, she suddenly recognized him.

"Holy tolieto!" Anna exclaimed. "There was a man under all that hair!"

Carl burst out laughing as did Glenn from the living as Maggie and Sasha smiled.

When they were finished eating, they all gathered every blanked and pillow they could find in the house and started setting up, getting ready to sleep in the living room. Everyone flinched, and Juno growled when a knock came at the door. Rick walked over to the door and calmly opened the door, letting Deanna step inside.

"Rick…" She started then stopped to stare at him. "Wow." She said, eliciting a groan from Rick. "I didn't know what was under there. Listen, I don't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to stop by and see how you were all settling." She stepped in further, looking into the living room where they had all gathered. "Oh my. Staying together. Smart."

"No one said we couldn't." Rick said, eyeing Deanna suspiciously.

"You said you're a family." Deanna said smiling. "That's what you said. Absolutely amazing to me how people with completely different backgrounds, and nothing in common can become that. Don't you think?"

"Everybody said you gave them jobs." Rick inquired.

"Mm-hmm" Deanna said nodding. "Yeah. Part of this place. Looks like the communist have won after all.

"Well you didn't give me one." Rick pointed out.

"I just haven't told you yet." Then looked passed Rick to Michonne. "And Michonne." She said then looked at Daryl who sat by the window. "I still have to figure out what I can give the Dixon boys to do, but I'll figure it out." She smiled as she nodded to Rick then turned and left.

* * *

I may not have edited the last 5%, so I'm sorry if there are glaring mistakes.

-Shockra


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay! Hopefully you'll love this chapter enough to forgive my delay. Warning: Anna and Merle get it on

* * *

Anna looked at the door to Deanna's home. It was early in the morning and she was meeting Deanna at her house, as promised, to discuss her new responsibilities. Anna still didn't know what to think of Alexandria yet, on the surface it was pretty, and it looked like barely anything had changed over the last couple years and that made it seem like a paradise in the middle of the desert but what concerned Anna was what the community was underneath its pretty exterior.

During the journey from the town they had bunked at with Aaron and Eric; Abraham, Glenn and Daryl had alternately recounted their encounter with the residents of a community called Terminus. Afterwards, Noah told them about the hospital he'd lived in up until he'd met first Beth, Maggie's now deceased sister, and then how he had met Daryl and Carol. Those stories mixed with Anna's own personal experiences, made her worried about what these people were really like.

With a sigh, Anna finally mounted the steps then knocked on the door. She was slightly surprised when man, slightly younger than she, opened the door.

"Oh…sorry." Anna said looking at the house, "I must have gotten turned around."

"No, you're in the right place." The man said then stuck out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Spencer. Deanna is my mother."

Anna shook his hand and smiled as she studied the man. He was handsome, with short dirty blonde hair and beautiful eyes that sat in a face with a well portioned face with a striking jaw line. Anna had to admit, she found him attractive.

"Hi, I'm Anna Ford." Anna greeted.

"I know. My mother is waiting inside." Spencer said then stepped back and waved her inside

Anna stepped inside then followed Spencer as he led her to where Deanna waited, in a well appointed office. When the two of them walked through the door, Deanna smiled.

"Good morning, miss Ford." Deanna greeted. "How was your sleep?"

"Better then I've had in many months." Anna said trying to sound pleasant.

Merle was as against this place as ever but was willing to put up with it as long as she did. The others, while still uncertain of the place, were willing to give the place a chance; including Daryl and Abraham. All of the others had been given jobs and most had gone off to do them today. Abraham had been put on a construction crew, which Anna thought was a good choice. While Abe was an excellent tactician and soldier, he was also very good at building things. In the years since he'd left the Army, Abe had started his own construction company and was renovating people's homes before everything went pear shaped.

On top of his abilities, Abe's hot-headed nature would clash with these mild-mannered people when out in the wild collecting things. Anna didn't think they could handle him, if things got out of hand in a tense situation like Rick had. While Anna was also short tempered, she was able to control her temper when needed and could take orders.

"I'm glad to hear that." Deanna said. "Now to business. My son here, is in charge of protecting our walls. I would like you to join his service. I thought that you and your dog, Juno, would be a good addition and hoped that maybe you could find some vulnerabilities so that we might fix them _before_ we have any trouble."

"Yes ma'am, we'll do our best." Anna said nodding her head slightly.

"Good. If you come up with any ideas, bring them to me or Reg, my husband." Deanna said smiling. "Now, why don't the two of you go relieve Hope from guard duty. Spencer can fill you in on our protocols on the way."

111

The next morning Anna sat in the corner of the front porch working out the tangles and pulling out the ticks in Juno's fur when Daryl exited the house, carrying his crossbow. He was about to continue down the steps but paused and looked back at Anna.

"You don't really seem the type to be into my brother." Daryl said, shocking Anna slightly with his bluntness.

Anna chuckled as she stopped what she was doing and looked up at Daryl. "Who says I'm into your brother?"

"Merle." Daryl answered suddenly looking uncertain and a little uncomfortable.

"And Merle never blows hot air?"

"So you ain't?" Daryl asked suddenly sounding frustrated.

"I didn't say that either." Anna said smirking.

"Whatever." Daryl growled as he turned and started away.

"Wait." Anna said getting to her feet. "Sorry, I can be an evasive little shit sometimes. It drives Abe crazy too." Daryl stopped and looked back at her not quite glaring but not looking very impressed either. "Yes, Merle and I have a thing. I don't know what to call it yet, but it is a thing."

"Why him? He's an ass, very few people ever actually like him." Daryl asked.

Anna laughed. "Merle is an ass but he's trying to change." Anna looked around them then went up to Daryl. "Don't tell him I said this but he's trying to be more like you."

Daryl looked at her like she was crazy. "Like me? Why?"

Anna smiled at him kindly. "Because you've managed to make close connections among strangers and have earned their respect and trust. Things aren't like before, its next to impossible to survive out there on your own, so his reasoning might be a bit of a selfish one, but it's good for him."

Daryl looked off into distance. "Huh." Was all he said before continuing down the steps and down the street.

Anna returned to tending to Juno who hadn't even awakened from her nap when Anna had gotten to her feet. After half an hour, Merle slowly walked up the steps and looked down at the pair as Anna leaned back against the corner post and Juno laid with her head in her lap.

"Where have you been?" Anna asked as he finally took a seat beside her and pulled a cigarette out his pocket.

"Just checkin' the place out, both in and around the place. Apparently, Deanna don't know what to do with me. Said that if I'd had both my hands, she'd have set me up with the construction crew but she don't think I can handle it with one hand."

"Did you tell her she's probably wrong?" Anna asked smiling.

"Sure did, then suggested I help scavenge but she don't think I'd get on all that well with their current runners."

Anna laughed. "You don't get on with most people, they just need to be more adaptable. Even when things were good, there was always that one person nobody liked but you had to learn to get along with."

Merle opened his mouth to make a response but a shout and some commotion, distracted all three of them. They all got up and walked over to where a crowd had gathered. When they broke through the crowd, a young man that looked strikingly like Spencer was up in Glenn's face. Juno burst forward and latched onto the man's ankle and pulled his ass to the ground before Anna could even react.

"Juno!" Anna exclaimed firmly, over the man's girlish screams. "Release!" Juno instantly unlatched from the man's leg but kept an eagles on him. "Juno, down!"

"Your dog is psychotic!" The man complained as he clutched his now bleeding ankle.

"If she was psychotic, she'd have gone for the jugular while you were screaming on the ground like a little girl and wouldn't have disengaged when I ordered her too. She's a war dog, dip shit, who has been in warzones. You were acting aggressively to a person she's labelled at as a packmate and I have been relying on her to react first to save my life."

"You people shouldn't be in here!" The man growled. "You're just going to endanger us."

"Aiden!" Deanna's voice came as she approached with Rick. "What's going on?"

"That psycho dog attacked me for no reason." Aiden complained.

"Actually, he was acting aggressively to Glenn and Juno responded before I could stop her." Anna explained calmly. "She let go the second I called her off. She did her job, end of story."

"Why did you let these people in?" Aiden complained.

"Because we know what we're doing out there." Glenn retorted coolly.

Apparently, Aiden wasn't as injured as he was trying to appear, because he lunged to his feet and attempted to cheap shot Glenn, but Glenn dodged it easily and knocked him flat on his ass with his own punch. Juno got to her feet and started barking like crazy at Aiden, making biting actions towards him but not actually biting Aiden. At the same time Daryl ran forward and tackled the man who'd been guarding the gate the first day they'd arrived, as he moved to attack Glenn as well. Merle marched forward and glared down at the man as Daryl held her forearm to the man's wind pipe.

"Stay down, son. You can't handle one Dixon, let alone two." Merle growled down at the man.

Rick suddenly appeared, shoved Merle back and convince Daryl to get off the new guy as Juno made sure that Aiden stayed down. Daryl passed like a caged animal, obviously pissed but Anna doubted he knew what was happening since he'd arrived just after them, but obviously didn't like Glenn getting attacked.

"I want everyone to hear me, okay?" Deanna said, speaking up. "Rick and his people are apart of this community now. In all ways equal! Understood?" She turned her head to glare at her son.

Aiden shrugged like it was all a big joke. "Understood."

Deanna turned back to where Glenn, Tara and Noah stood. "All of you, turn in your weapons. Then you two come talk to me." She continued pointing to Nicholas and Aiden.

When everyone but those who'd shown up from their group, had dispersed, Deanna turned to Rick. "I told you I had a job for you." She said as she looked at Rick. "I want you to be our constable, that's what you were. That's what you are." She then looked at Michonne. "You too." She said to Michonne, bringing a look of surprise on her face. "Will you accept?"

Rick thought about it for a moment. "Yes."

"Yeah, I do too." Michonne added.

Daryl scoffed, apparently annoyed with Rick and Michonne, before turning and walking off. Finally, Deanna turned to Anna. "Do I have to be concerned about your dog?"

Anna looked down at Juno as she sat calmly, panting as she gazed up at Anna waiting for her next order. "No, she just needs a refresher. Just like us, she's been out there too long. I'll work with her and it'll never happen again."

Deanna nodded. "Good." She said then walked off.

"So what was that about?" Anna asked, looking at the three as they stared in the direction that Aiden and Nicholas had disappeared in.

"Those two have no idea what they're doing!" Tara grumbled.

"They nearly got Tara killed then got mad at Glenn when he helped her out." Noah added.

"That guy seemed to be on a bit of a power trip." Anna commented as Glenn knelt down and gave Juno a hearty scratch.

"Hopefully Deanna will hear the bullshit in her son's story and not send him again." Glenn said as he stood up, obviously irritated but keeping his emotions under control.

111

Anna sat on a bench in the small park that sat at the center of Alexandria, staring absently at the large pond, when Merle plunked himself down beside her and threw his one arm around her shoulders. Anna smiled as she looked over at him.

"Kiss you once and you think we're goin' steady." Anna said.

Merle grinned. "Don't think I've ever had a serious relationship in my life."

"Is that what you think this is? A serious relationship?" Anna asked as she raised her eyebrows.

"Considering I don't generally see a girl for more than a couple weeks and I've known you for several months now, I'd say it is." Merle said then kissed her on the cheek.

"You didn't like me much at the beginning, so we could hardly call that dating, and we haven't even screwed yet." Anna said, smiling at him mischievously.

"Well, I've had plenty of girlfriends that I liked in the beginning and quickly didn't like. So maybe the fact that I didn't like you in the beginning is a good thing, since I like you now." Merle said casually then turned towards her and leaned in. "As for the second part, well we can fix that right now."

Anna grinned as she leaned forward and kissed Merle passionately. When they'd both ran out of breath, Anna stood up and grabbed Merle's stump as he pressed himself against her backside as he wrapped his other arm around her waist and shoved his hand down the front of her pants as she sauntered into the trees. Once out of sight Merle immediately started working on pants as he kissed her neck as he pushed her up to a tree. Anna shoved Merle back as she turned and laughed, then shoved his flannel shirt off his shoulders then grabbed the hem of Merle's shirt and pulled it over his head.

Merle grinned cockily as she ran her hands over his bare chest. "Like what you see?"

Anna grinned also. "It's alright, but its what's down here that I'm interested in." Anna said as she undid his belt buckle, unbuttoned his jeans and shoved them down.

"Gettin' a little head of yourself." Merle said as he kicked off his boots then jeans. "I ain't seen no tits or flesh from you yet. So, until I get to see somethin' you ain't touchin' nor seein' my balls."

Anna chuckled as she reached down, grabbed the edge of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Merle let out a whistle a he reached out and grabbed her breast as Anna reached behind her and unclasped her bra. Merle grabbed the offending brassiere that was impeding his ability to touch her bare breast and threw it aside.

"Pants, next girl!" Merle demanded as he fondled her bare breast rubbed her back with the stub of his other arm.

"Now, now. Don't take that tone with me Dixon or you'll never get laid." Anna said as she removed his hand from her chest.

Merle bent forward and kissed her passionately. After he'd kissed her breathless, he pulled back ever so slightly. "Please." He breathed.

"Better." Anna panted kissed Merle one more time then shoved him back and finished unbuttoning her pants.

When they were around her ankles, Merle pushed her firmly against the tree and start grinding against her as he continued to kiss her; first on the lips then on the neck. Although Merle was being aggressive, Anna was loving every second of it. From what Merle had told her previously, it had been at least a year, possibly longer since he'd gotten laid and considering the man was used to a very active sexual life, that was an eternity for him.

By the time they were done, Anna's back had been rubbed raw by the trees bark but at the moment, she didn't really care. As Anna bent over to pick her pants off the ground, Merle's hand ran over the raw spot on her back.

"Sorry, got a little outta hand. You okay?" Merle asked with a surprising amount of softness.

Anna scoffed. "I'm fine. If you were getting to be too much, I'd have stopped you."

"So is this old bull still good 'nough for you? There certainly is better options out there." Merle said as he zipped up his jeans.

Anna chuckled. "I'm not really all that shallow Merle." Anna said then turned him to face her and draped her arms on his shoulders. "So long as you treat me right, you got nothin' to worry about."

"And what's _treatin' you right_?" Merle asked rubbing her still bare side.

"Showin' me respect, bein' gentle with me when its just the two of us, not gettin' mad when I try to get to know you." Anna replied then grinned. "Buyin' me an airplane and beautiful mansion would be nice too."

Merle scoffed as he smacked her ass. "Keep dreamin' princess. No way I'd get you a mansion or a plane, even before all this shit." Merle said grinning as picked up his muscle shirt.

"Well, you know, there a whole bunch of abandon mansions just waitin' to be lived in once more." Anna said making a pouty face as she touched her still bare chest.

Merle chuckled as he groped one of her breasts. "Well ain't you high maintenance. I'll see what I can do."

111

Anna smirked as she leaned against the wall by the main gate, rubbing her back slightly, reliving the night before in her head; the lusty love making and the walk back to the house. The whole way the made joking demands of the other, telling them that they needed this or that to make their relationship work. On top of the mansion and airplane, Anna demanded that Merle get her jacked up pick up truck, which he found very sexy, and a ring with a diamond the size of a golf ball. Merle demanded that she get him a brand new custom chopper with black pearl paint and charcoal flames and black leather seat, a new hand to better fondle her with, and a very detailed description of a set of lingerie he wanted her to find so he could see her in it. Merle had laughed loudly the whole way down the street as they walked either ignoring the glares from the people in their windows or giving them the finger.

Juno suddenly got her feet and waged her tail vigorously as someone approached. When Anna looked up, she saw Daryl walking over with his crossbow over his shoulder and Merle reluctantly in tow. Juno trotted forward a few feet, her whole butt waggling as she greeted first Daryl then Merle.

"You ain't vicious at all." Daryl said smirking slightly as he scratched her cheeks vigorously. "You just don't like assholes, ain't that right?"

Anna laughed as Merle snickered. "Guess that makes you an asshole." Anna said to Merle as she laughed.

"Ain't never denied it. Can't be that bad no more, she actually likes me these days." Merle said as he came to lean against the wall next to her.

"She used to growl at you?" Daryl asked, although he didn't sound all that surprised.

"Tried to chomp off his remaining hand a couple of times." Anna said chuckling. "Although, to be fair, we'd been travelling on our own for several month and had nothing, but bad things happen. I didn't trust him then so neither did she."

"So this jack ass has both of you fooled." Daryl said then got thumped hard in the shoulder by Merle.

Anna jerked Merle back by collar, earning a glare from Merle and a smirk from Daryl but neither said anything. "So, where you boys headin'?" Anna asked as she wrapped her arm around Merle's arm, his stump once again armed with its knife.

"Huntin'." Merle answered as he leaned against the wall again. "Neither of us got somethin' to do."

"Then why do you look like Daryl's dragging you along?" Anna asked smirking.

Daryl gave Merle a look that seemed to be daring Merle to tell the truth. Merle sighed as he looked away.

"I got bored, so I went to the infirmary…to find some drugs." Merle said then looked at her challengingly.

"Merle! Why would you do that? You've been clean for how long?" Anna asked now frowning. She know he hadn't gotten clean because he wanted to but because drugs were hard to find.

"This wouldn't have been the first time he's been clean and fallen off the band wagon." Daryl grumbled as he glared at his brother.

"Apparently my pain in the ass little brother thinks he needs to baby sit me and caught me in the act. Then told me if I was bored then we should go huntin', so here I am." Merle said holding his hands up and smiling like it was all a joke.

"Merle, I know things ain't great right now, but you can't do shit like that? What if these people turn out to actually be like those cannibals Daryl told us about in Terminus and you're too high to defend yourself?" Anna asked stepping back and putting her hand on her hips.

"She got a point, Merle." Daryl agreed, looking pleased to be watching his brother get scolded by his sort of girlfriend.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a dumb ass can we move on." Merle growled.

Anna reached for the dead bolt that held the gate shut and pulled it open then both gates open. "Be careful boys, don't get eaten."

Daryl walked through almost immediately but Merle paused and looked down at her. "Don't have any fun without me." He said then surprised Anna by pecking her on the lips before turning and following his brother. Apparently, he wasn't annoyed with her scolding him.

Anna felt a little foolish flushing as she pushed the gate shut again, she'd had boyfriends before. Hell, it hadn't even been a year since she'd been in a relationship…even if she hadn't been given a choice on whether or not she wanted to be in the relationship. Juno suddenly let out a low growl.

"Seriously, you and that old guy?" Spencer asked walking over to her.

Anna cocked an eyebrow. "How old do you think _I_ am?"

Spencer looked at her like she'd set a trap for him. "I don't know, late twenties early thirties?"

"Flattering but try adding a decade." Anna said crossing her arms over her rifle. "I mean yeah, there's an age gap but not that big of an age gap. I'm probably closer to Daryl in age then Merle but I don't know why that matters."

"No…no that's fine. He just doesn't seem your type, you know a little too redneck." Spencer said, flushing slightly.

"You do realize I'm from Texas, right?" Anna asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Red necks are a normal thing, down south."

Spencer cleared his throat. "Right. Anyways, are you coming to the party tonight?"

Anna frowned. "What party?"

"My mom, she's throwing this welcome party for you and your friends. Nobody told you about it?" Spencer asked, slightly surprised.

Anna shrugged. "I guess everyone assumed someone told me."

"So? Will you come?" Spencer asked grinning. "There will be alcohol, beer mostly and a lot of it."

Anna laughed. "Sure."

"Maybe leave Merle at home. He seems like he'd get disruptive." Spencer said wincing.

"You know, Merle can play nice when he wants too." Anna said crossing her arms over her chest. "But when he gets nothing but a 'we don't want him here' vibe, its hard for him to want to. He don't feel welcome, neither him nor Daryl do, and I don't blame them." Anna said. "Ya'll think that since they're redneck, they're bad people and they ruin the image of your perfect little suburbia neighborhood. Those Dixon boys are your best hope at survival. Just one of those two boys know more 'bout survivn' than your whole community put together!"

"And who says we want to survive the way they do." Spencer asked.

Anna shook her head. "You still don't get it. The whole 'don't judge book by its cover', never applied more than it does these days. They ain't so morally screwed up as you think."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to overhear your conversation, but I _want_ the Dixon brothers to feel comfortable here." Deanna said as Spencer stepped to the side so that both of them could see her. "You seem to know them well. How do we make them feel more welcome?"

Anna sighed. "Stop prejudging them, to start. They have been harshly judged their whole lives, so they just assume people don't like them. Show 'em kindness but don't smoother them. Show a bit of trust. But no matter what you do, it'll still take time for them to adjust."

"Aaron asked that Daryl join him as a recruiter. He thinks that Daryl has a good sense of people." Deanna said. "I have agreed to it yet, but I'm seriously considering it. I'm trying to think of a job for Merle but between his personality and him being short a hand…"

Anna shook her head. "Don't let either one of those get in the way. Merle will adapt to the people he's with and they need a little color in their lives. They may find him annoying but he's trying to play nice with others. As for him being short a hand, well he still does things better than most people with just one hand. He was in the military once, not all that long but he picked up some key things. He operates with military efficiency, he can be very disciplined when he has the drive and you'll never find someone more loyal than either one of those Dixon's. It's about the only good thing they learned from their father."

"Do you think he could join the construction crew?" Deanna asked. "That was my first thought."

"Sure, he could do that." Anna said nodding her head. "Abe could probably manage him, but he'd be better at scavenging, Merle has a very…unique set of knowledge."

"He won't be a danger to the others?" Deanna asked.

Anna shook her head angrily. "No. If anything, he'll keep them safe. Did he tell you about his days with the people of Woodbury?"

"Yes. Most of it unsavory but he did mention being in charge of the town's defense and doing supply runs." Deanna said. "But I'm worried that he'll bring some of that violent behavior with him."

Anna laughed mirthlessly. "Trust me, that violence will be needed. Merle is cool and collected in high stress situations, he keeps his head. He has bush medical knowledge, can hunt game and forage for edible plants, can start a fire in almost any situation, the list goes on. You need him out there."

"A little protective of your boyfriend, huh?" Spencer asked snidely.

"I just don't like judgemental people." Anna said glaring at him.

"I understand how you feel but you have to understand that I have to protect my people." Deanna said also crossing her arms over her chest.

Anna sighed as she leaned against the gate. "You're right, you do have to protect your people but one of these days you'll have to trust us… _all_ of us."

Deanna nodded her head. "You're right. I'll have another talk with Merle tomorrow, then we'll see where things go from there."

Anna nodded her head. "He'll appreciate having something to do, he'll more likely stay out of trouble if he's being kept occupied."

Deanna nodded her head again. "Noted."

111

Half an hour later, Anna opened the gate as Carol and Rick walked up. Anna frowned, she hadn't let them out so the previous guard must have. She had only been at the gate for about ten minutes when Daryl and Merle rolled up, so they must have left before that.

"Hey, did you hear 'bout Deanna's party?" Anna asked them as she closed the gate.

Rick frowned. "No, what party?"

"A welcoming party." Rick and Carol looked at each other, in a way that made Anna suspicious. "What?"

Rick shook his head. "It's nothing." Rick said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Will you be there?"

"Party in the suburbs isn't exactly my thing, but I said I would. I'm sure Abe will drag me there, no matter what." Anna said with a shrug.

"Good, we need as many of us there as we can. I doubt Daryl or Merle will be there, but maybe that's to our benefit." Carol said. "Daryl especially wouldn't do good in a crowd like that."

"I better get going. Michonne and I need to do our job." Rick said walking forward.

"So should I." Carol said following after him.

Anna frowned at them as they retreated, they were hiding something. After another twenty minutes, another bang came at the gate. When she opened the gate, Sasha stood there waiting. At first, Anna smiled at her, but it quickly faded when she took in Sasha's empty look.

"Hey." Anna said as she rolled the gate open. "Are you okay?"

Sasha glared at her as she walked through the gate. "I'm fine."

Anna knew she was about to step on a land mine, but she had to say it. "You should really talk with someone. I know you lost your boyfriend and brother in a short span of time. It will help."

Sasha's glare went from hollow to venomous. "You don't know nothing!" She snarled.

"But I do. I thought my brother and his family was dead for almost two years, turns out I was three quarters right. On top of that, I lost an entire community, just like you. Most of those people I've known and served with for _years_!" Anna said seriously. "I maybe haven't been in your exact situation, but I understand grief really well."

Sasha's body's language suddenly softened. "Abraham had a family?"

Anna also softened as the emotions she'd kept tightly under control, came rearing up. "He had a wife, Ellen and two kids, A.J. and Becca. Damn, I loved those kids. A.J. was growing up to be just like his dad. Abe retired earlier than he was supposed to, just so he could be with his family, so that his kids didn't grow up like we did."

"I…I didn't know." Sasha said softly.

"From what Abe has said, nobody does. Not even Eugene or Rosita. In the military, no matter what service you're in, you learn to compartmentalize your emotions. Shove your grief into a compart and lock it up so it doesn't mess with your ability to operate, otherwise it could kill you. But eventually, you have to face that grief, and I'm sure, one day soon, it'll catch up with Abe. It's not healthy shove your grief in a box, you need to face it."

Sasha raised her chin. "I'm not a crying sort of woman, I just move on."

Anna looked at her sympathetically. "I don't normally like to cry either, but sometimes you need to just have that one good cry. Sometimes you just need to pour out all your feelings to that one person, any person, then try to move on."

Sasha stared at her for a moment then nodded her head. "I'll consider what you said." She said then moved off.

After another twenty minutes, Juno started barking at the gate, not viciously but excitedly. When Anna rolled in the interior gate open, she saw Merle and Daryl coaxing a beautiful black horse, towards the gate as Aaron walked in front of them. Anna looked down at Juno, her barking was likely upsetting the horse.

"Juno, down!" Anna ordered, pointing the grass beside the road.

Juno trotted over to the grass and laid down, ears and eyes intensely focused on the road but no longer barking. Anna slid the second gate open as they got closer, then stood by Juno and made sure she behaved. Most other animals didn't faze Juno but for whatever reason, she loved horses and got very excited when she saw them. Anna had gotten to be able to listen to commands while she could see or hear them but that had been the largest challenge in training Juno.

Merle and Daryl finally managed to get the horse within the gate and Aaron closed it for her as she cautiously approached the animal, giving Juno the hand gesture to stay.

"I thought you boys had gone hunting?" Anna asked as she came over.

"We did and we found him." Daryl said, smirking ever so slightly.

"And _I_ caught him!" Merle said proudly. " _Before_ them walkers showed up!"

Anna cocked an eyebrow. "Since when were you a horse person?"

"I ain't but I learned a few things in Woodbury." Merle said smiling proudly.

"Oh, my god!" Maggie exclaimed happily as she ran full tilt towards. "You found a horse?"

She threw her arms around Daryl and gave him a tight hug, then slowly turned to the horse as it reared. She grabbed the rope from Merle and shooed him away.

"Leave her be." Daryl said. "She's raised horses, she knows what she's doin'."

Daryl turned and walked off as Spencer came over to them. "Wow, you finally got it!" Spencer said to Aaron.

"Actually, it was all Daryl and Merle, I just watched." Aaron said. "I'm going to go check on Eric, do you have this Maggie?"

Maggie now had her cheek on the horse's neck. "She's good girl, she just needs a little love."

Anna laughed. "I think someone is in love."

Merle just grunted as he put hand on her hip while Spencer stepped towards Anna. "I'm taking over watch. You go get cleaned up for the party."

"Shit. You're not going to that are you?" Merle asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Anna sighed. "Just for a bit."

"I'll join you shortly." Maggie said as she stroked the horse's cheek. "Glenn won't appreciate it if I ditch him."

* * *

So? Was it worth the wait? I'll try to be more on the ball and add more interaction with the others.

-Shockra


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone, welcome to chapter 6. For whatever reason, I seemed to struggle with this chapter. I didn't really seem to know where I wanted to go with it, hence the time frame but I think I figured it out now. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it!

* * *

Anna walked down the street, next to her brother and Rosita, none of whom were excited to go to the community party. Rosita had managed to coax Anna to dress up in a dress with her, so she wouldn't be the only woman from their group dressed in a dress.

"So, you and Merle, huh?" Rosita asked as they walked down the street.

"Say what?" Abraham exclaimed as he looked first at Rosita then at Anna. " _Merle_!?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "You're not exactly in any position to judge for my choice in men."

Abraham sighed. "So long as he don't hurt you, then we got no problem. Just know that I ain't a fan."

"Noted." Anna said with a nod.

Rosita looked between the two of them waiting for something, but nothing more came. "That's it? No fireworks, no yelling. No seeing a man like that." Rosita said the last part in her best Abraham voice.

Anna cocked an eyebrow. "Is that why you brought Merle up? To get Abe and I to argue?"

"No. I figured Abraham knew" Rosita said not at all fazed by the accusation, "but don't most brother-sisters, like, argue? Yell at each other about their bad decisions or whatever."

Anna looked at Abraham as he looked at her, then they both laughed. "We almost never yell at each other and rarely get into disagreements." Anna said.

"And if we do, we settle our disagreements with few fireworks." Abraham said.

"You're two short-tempered ginger siblings who don't yell at each other?" Rosita said giving them a _really_ look. "You don't find that strange?"

"We just use that anger on other people, not each other." Anna said grinning as Abraham laughed and knocked on Deanna's door.

"We're supposed to let ourselves in." Rosita said as shook her head then opened the door and stepped inside.

Abraham indicated for Anna to go in front of him, so she did. As the three of them stopped in the entryway, they stared as the Alexandrian's mingled amongst each other like things hadn't changed. Even though Anna had shaved her legs for the first time in a year, she felt self conscious in her dress but at least she wasn't the only one from their group who wore a dress. Like Rosita, who had on a black simple but pretty dress with a grey cardigan over top and a simple ponytail., Anna wore a similar dress but emerald green with a white jean jacket but had French braided her hair into a faux-hawk on top of her head while the rest of her mane hung loosely down her back.

"I don't know about this." Abraham muttered.

Rosita looked around unimpressed. "They have beer." She said then looked back at Abraham as he zoned in on the booze.

"I'm gonna try." Abraham said, making Rosita smile slightly as she looked back at Anna.

Anna watched as the two of them wandered off, first grabbing a beer then wandering further into the house. With a sigh, Anna slowly wandered over to the beer then looked around. She felt like a fish out of water here in Alexandria, the only people she really had a connection with was her brother and Merle. Once upon a time, she could mingle with the best of them but after months of being on her own then with only one person, Anna had lost that ability to socialize.

"You must be Anna." A blonde haired woman said as she walked over to her then held out her hand. "I'm Jesse."

"Hi Jessie, I am Anna. Anna Ford." Anna said shaking the woman's hand.

"You've got beautiful hair!" Jessie exclaimed as she reached out and pulled a few strands forward.

"Uh, thanks." Anna said looking down at her straightened strands, feeling slightly uncomfortable with her personal space being invaded.

"Obviously your natural color!" Jessie said dropping her hand finally.

"Yeah, we're a family of gingers." Anna said indicating her flaming red head brother as him and Rosita looked over the snacks were laid out on a table.

"It must be nice to have family close by." Jessie said, a look of sadness flashing across her face. "I heard that you'd just found your brother right before Aaron found all of you!"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, we got lucky, really lucky. Do you have family?"

"Just my husband and kids." Jessie said, indicating a tallish man who was practically guzzling his beer when he wasn't talking to the other residents. "He's the community doctor, although he hasn't had to do deal with anything to drastic."

"That's fortunate. From what Spencer said, ya'll had next to no problems with either the dead or the living." Anna said then took a hearty swig from her own beer.

"Yeah, we've been lucky, but it'll run out one day. Which is why I think Deanna wanted you all here." Jessie said, smiling kindly. "To teach us more about surviving."

Anna found Jessie to be a surprisingly genuine person and enjoyable to talk with. She was the artistic type, although she didn't call herself an artist. She had also had her own hairdressing business that she'd run out of her own basement before everything went south and begged Anna to let her work with her firey red hair one day, to which Anna had agreed to.

Eventually, though, he husband dragged her off to go talk with some other people, leaving Anna alone once more. Off to one side, Anna noticed that her brother, Rosita, Glenn, Maggie and Noah, had gathered to sit together to visit amongst themselves. Anna wandered over to them and listened to them talk for a time but not really getting into their conversations. When she turned to walk away, Abraham grabbed her arm and gently guided her away from everyone.

"Hey, you okay Annie?" Abraham asked, studying her carefully. "You've barely said anything since coming here."

Anna shrugged. "I guess I'm outta practice. I'm just feeling very out of place here, I don't really know anybody but you and Merle ain't here. I think two hours is my threshold for putting up with strangers. I'll see you later." Abraham opened his mouth to protest but Anna put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine."

Anna turned then and left the house. As Anna walked up the now dark street, towards the house, she saw some one also walking along just ahead of her and when he passed Aaron's house, the light on the front porch came on and out stepped Aaron, revealing the other person be Daryl. Anna was far enough back that she couldn't really hear what was being said but as she stopped and watched, she saw Aaron turn and walk back inside. Daryl stood there for a couple moments staring at the door, then mounted the steps and went inside.

Anna shrugged, curious but not really her business. She continued down the street and up into the second house their group had been given. Rick had finally decided that it was safe enough to spread out a little. He'd sent Anna, Merle, Abraham, Rosita, Noah, Eugene and Tara all over to the second house. Rick had claimed that he had split them up the way he had because, they were the ones who hadn't had a previous relationship with Merle, but Anna couldn't help but think that Rick was keeping those he was closest to, nearest to him.

Climbing the steps, Anna then went inside to a dark house. When Anna turned on the lights, she nearly had a heart attack, when she saw Merle leaning against the wide door frame that stood in between the kitchen and living room with his arms crossed, smiling at her slightly as he watched her.

"Were you just standing there waiting for me to come to come home?" Anna asked as she put her hand to her chest.

"Nope, saw you comin' up the street while I was drinkin' on the couch." Merle said then his smile expanded as he held up a bottle of vodka. "I found two, wanna get drunk with me?"

"You hopin' if I get drunk with you, you'll get laid again?" Anna asked as she walked up to him and grabbed the bottle from him.

"I just wanna see you drunk." Merle said putting his hand and stump on her hips as he pressed his hips against hers. "Gettin' laid is just a bonus."

Anna put the bottle to her lips and took a hearty swing as Merle's hand slid down her hip then up and under her skirt to her womanhood. Anna grabbed his hand and pulled it away as she shook her finger at him while still holding the bottle.

"Drunk first, sex later." Anna said, shoving Merle back as he grinned.

"Hey, save some for me!" Merle said as he snatched it from her lips.

111

The next morning, Anna was leaning against the wall by the main gate, leaning her head back as she tried to no think of her throbbing head. When Anna raise her head, she saw Deanna come strolling up with an assault rifle and two boxes of bullets in hand. She stopped and smiled slightly at Anna.

"Good morning, Miss Ford."

"Morning, Deanna." Anna greeted, nodding her head in greeting. "You're not planning on going out there on your own?"

Deanna chuckled. "No, this isn't for me, it's for her." Deanna said then indicated down the street as Sasha came walking towards them.

Sasha walked up to them and crossed her arms over her chest when she stopped, still looking as much of a shell of a woman as she had when Anna had first met her. "Is she supposed to be my babysitter?"

"No, its just Anna's turn for guard duty. Rick doesn't want us to leave the gates unattended and we need someone to be able to open it up." Deanna said as she handed first the gun then the boxes of ammunition.

"Where are you going?" Anna asked.

Sasha was one of the few who didn't really have a job. Anna suspected that she was supposed to be on gate duty, like Anna, but hadn't complied. From what Abraham had told her, Sasha had lost both her boyfriend and brother very close together, in violent ways, leaving the woman first morose but now she seemed to be moving on to angry.

"Just up the tower." Sasha said pointing to the tower that peeked over the side of the wall. "No one has been up there since we arrived, and Rick wants its manned around the clock."

Anna frowned as she looked back at Deanna. "I just assumed that Spencer was going up there."

"No, we haven't really seen the need for it." Deanna said shrugging like she didn't see why manning the tower mattered.

"Merle could probably take a couple shifts." Anna said as Sasha opened the gate for herself and left.

Deanna frowned. "How is that even possible, he has one hand. How can he even shoot a rifle?"

Anna cocked an eyebrow; this woman obviously didn't know much about shooting. "A tripod or window sill would do just fine. He could probably use his own arm to support the barrel." Anna said as she pushed the gate shut.

"You don't want a shift?" Deanna asked as she studied Anna.

Anna shrugged. "I'm not a sharp shooter. I am a half decent shot but not an expert marksman. I'm an expert in bomb detection and finding things, which made me required to be better at short range fighting, not long range."

"Noted." Deanna said nodding her head, "Now if you'll excuse me." Deanna started to move away but paused and looked back. "By the way, there will be a supply run today, I'm sending Merle with them."

Anna looked at her surprised. "Isn't Glenn one of the supply runners?"

"Yes, he is but he has assured me that his history with Merle won't be a problem and Merle promised to be a team player. With his brother gone, I'm hoping that giving Merle something to do will make him more…agreeable." Deanna obviously wasn't convinced as she stared towards the community.

"Merle will surprise you." Anna promised. "He's trying to be a better man, he just needs people to believe in him. To give him a chance."

"There you are." A tall man that Carol had identified as Tobin, said as he approached the two. "Actually, its great that the two of you are together."

"What can we do for you, Tobin?" Deanna asked smiling.

"I was hoping you'd be willing to relieve Anna and Juno from guard duty for the day and let her accompany us out to the mall." Tobin said smiling. "I wanted Anna to come along with her dog to act as an alarm system, but Abraham said she might be helpful from the construction aspect also."

Anna shrugged. "I've never built anything bigger than a fence or deck before, but I know my way around tools, and I work hard."

"Alright." Deanna agreed as she nodded. "She can change places with Francine."

Anna remained by the gate as the two wandered off but less than twenty minutes later, three trucks rolled up to the gate and Francine jumped off the back of the lead vehicle and walked over to where Anna was pulling the gate open.

"Deanna sent me to replace you, so you can go with these boys." Francine said, pointing to the vehicles behind her.

"Thanks." Anna said.

She walked around to the back of the first truck and found Abraham offering her his hand. Anna smiled up at him them bent over and looked at Juno.

"Up!" Anna ordered her.

Juno took a couple steps back than ran at Anna then used Anna's back as a step up and landed on to the back of the truck. When Anna straightened, she saw the other three men staring at Juno in shock as she panted and waited for Anna to also board the back of the truck. Finally, Anna took her brothers hand and let him pull her up into the back of the truck.

They all sat in the back of the truck as they left the safety of the walls, the first time for both Anna and Abraham since they'd arrived. Anna would never admit it out loud, but she was a little tentative about leaving the walls. The last time she'd left the walls of a community, she never returned and was out on her own for months. Anna wrapped her arm around one of her brother's big biceps and laid her head down on his shoulder, at least she had Abe with her.

Anna managed to keep her face neutral as she noticed a slight tremor in Abraham's hand as he grabbed the hand on his bicep and clutched it between his two hands. He must be feeling apprehension as well. From what he had told her, he had been out there a long time, even longer than her, but he had lost a lot of people along the way and it had been nice to not have to worry about getting eaten, every minute of every day.

When they rolled to a stop, Anna finally took in their surroundings. Off in the distance stood the skeleton of a huge mall, not even a quarter finished. Within their immediate vicinity stood several heavy machinery and stacks of metal beams and sheets of metal.

Anna followed the others as they dismounted, doing the reverse procedure to help Juno get down from the back of the truck. They all gathered around Tobin as he started handing out assignments to the others then looked at Anna uncertainly.

"I don't know what I should do with you." Tobin smiling at her slightly.

"I'm sure you don't need me to help with the other stuff, so Juno and I will walk the perimeter, look for signs of trouble." Anna said, then looked at the trees as the wind blew through the leaves. "The wind is coming from the west so Juno will only be able to smell trouble coming from that direction but, so long as it doesn't get to loud around here, she'll be able to hear them."

"Right." Tobin agreed, accepting her judgement.

"But you better hurry, you'll eventually attract trouble." Anna said. "Of the unfeeling kind."

Tobin nodded. "We'll move ask quickly as possible."

Anna guided Juno to the furthest edge of the work site, then started moving clockwise around the job, keeping a close eye on the people working within the site and on the trees. After an hour of working, Anna had stopped to kneel next to Juno and give her some water to drink and little bit of chow, when she looked over to where her brother was working and saw him looking up at the sky. When she looked up in the same direction, she saw what he was looking at then heard the birds indignant screeching. Frowning, Anna stood up and led Juno in the direction that the birds had flown from, hoping it was just an animal and not something else.

When they got close, the hackles on Juno's back suddenly stood up as she growled lowly but didn't bark, indicating to Anna that it was walkers coming at them, not strangers or a dangerous animal. Suddenly, one of the workers came running from the bushes, pulling up his pants as he ran straight for her, followed by two walkers reaching for him hungerly. Instead of letting Juno attack the nearest walker, Anna held on to her leash, scared that one of the others might accidently shoot her.

Instead, Anna opened fire, shooting the nearest walker to the man as he ran passed her, running for his life. The others responded quickly and joined in taking down the walkers as more and more emerged from the trees, but it seemed that when you put one down, two more emerged. It didn't help that most of them were a shitty shot.

A hissing sound made Anna look up in time to see the bucket of an excavator, that had been above her, come crashing down. Anna managed jump far enough out of the way to prevent her from being clobbered on the head but still got her legs pinned under the bucket.

"Annie!" Abraham's worried voice called as Anna let Juno's leash go so that she could defend both herself and Anna as she tried to free herself.

Anna heard Abraham's heavy footsteps come running towards her, firing and killing as many walkers as he could until he was kneeling down beside her.

"Hang tight, I'll get you out." Abraham said as he looked around them. "I'm gonna have to take care of these bastards first."

Anna could hear snarls and the ripping of flesh as Juno tried desperately to fend of the walkers. Anna tried to reach for her assault rifle, but it'd fallen out of her reach, so she awkwardly managed to pull her pistol from its holster underneath her body and started firing at walkers that got to close.

"Hang in there, Annie!" Abraham said as he grunted as he fought off the three walkers that had him surrounded.

Anna tried to twist her body so that she could aim behind her, where Abraham was located and try to take some of the heat of off him. When Abraham shoved a walker off himself and got sight of her trying to aim back at him, he plunged a blade into the walker's skull then scowled at her.

"Look after yourself!" Abraham growled as he pointed to incoming walker.

Anna shot the walker Abraham had pointed out, then looked around for the other Alexandrians they'd come with but found none. Shaking her head in anger, she continued shooting walkers until her clip ran out of bullets. Cursing, Anna looked around for her brother but couldn't see him nor hear him over the hungry growls of the nearby walkers. Anna choked down the panic that wanted to rise up and focused on trying to dig a hole for her legs while the walkers were temporarily distracted away from her.

Juno suddenly appeared at her side, covered in blood, and furiously started digging by her legs. "Good girl!" Anna whispered as she tried assist her.

A walker's growl caught Anna's attention but before she could turn back and defend herself, the walker grabbed her hair and pinned her to the ground. Lucky for Anna, Juno was quicker to respond and tackled the walker to the ground and started ripping at its neck until its limbs stopped moving. Anna could hear the walker still growling and its jaw snapping but Juno must have severed its spinal cord as its limbs did not move.

More walkers appeared around the side of machine but just as Juno prepared to launch herself at them, several gunshots wrung out at the same time, taking down her attackers. The faces of the other worker appeared as the finally fanned out, looking for more walkers but no more came. Still no Abraham appeared, finally, making the panic that she had managed to keep in control, rise up once more and this time she couldn't control it.

"Abe! Abe!" Anna called as she looked frantically around her. For a painful amount of time passed and still no response came but finally she heard a clunk behind her, and she twisted herself to Abraham leaning against the machine.

"I'm okay, sis." Abraham said, breathing heavily then straightened up. "Let's get you out of here." Abraham looked at the others as the continued to scan their surroundings. "They're gone for now, Juno will let us know when more come. Now help me get Annie out from under this thing!"

Several of them turned and faced him then started survey the situation. After about five minutes, they managed to lift the bucket of the excavator enough to pull Anna out from under it. When Anna tried to stand on her feet, she let out a shriek of pain as it felt like her left leg exploded and collapsed to the ground once more.

Abraham took his knife then cut her pant leg open, to the thigh, then gingerly felt around her thigh. She hissed in pain as he felt around deep red mark, obviously the spot where the excavator's bucket had pinned her legs to the ground. Abraham shook his head, frowning.

"I can't tell if its broken or if it's a muscle thing." Abraham said when he put a hand on Anna's shoulder. "I'm gonna carry you."

Anna just nodded her consent then gritted her teeth as Abraham scooped her up. Juno followed hot on Abraham's heels, then with a little assistance from Abraham, jumped up into the back of the truck and laid her head down on Anna's good leg.

111

Anna crossed her arms and stared unhappily out of the window of Alexandria's tiny clinic. She was fortunate enough to not have broken her leg, but the doctor still ordered her off her feet for the next couple weeks. Now she sat, bored out of her tree with her left upper leg wrapped tightly, waiting for someone to help her back to her home, which she thought unnecessary.

Juno had not liked the doctor at all. When they had first brought Anna into the clinic, Juno had snarled viciously when he had tried to touch Anna. Abraham had ended up having to drag Juno out of the room so the doctor could work on her but Juno's reaction to the man had set off alarms in both their heads. Abraham had watched closely from the doorway and would still be standing there if Deanna hadn't requested him to report what he'd seen.

Now Juno laid on the bed with Anna, her eyes tightly focused on the doctor as he sat at a desk. She was content to just stare at him so long as he was no where near her, but she still hated that man with a passion. Pete looked up and glared at Juno, probably feeling Juno's stare burn into the side of her head.

"I thought she was supposed to be some wonder dog. Detect things. Yet a herd of the undead snuck up on all of you." Pete said, clearly irritated by Juno's presence.

"She can and she did, but nature was against us. The wind was blowing the scent of the walkers away from us and by the time they were detected, they were starting to break from the trees. It's not her fault some jackass' poorly aimed shot hit the hydraulics that dropped that damn bucket on me." Anna said, stroking Juno's head then glared at Pete. "Although you have no right to judge, human or canine. I doubt you've ever been face to face with a walker, let alone killed one."

"I have a family to think of. I can't go galivanting out there." Pete said rolling his eyes.

" _Galivanting_?" Anna snarled. "You dumb shit! You do realize that the people who go out there are the ones who put food in your belly and keeping you _alive_!?"

Pete's face darkened as he slowly got to his feet which brought Juno to her feet, growling threateningly. "You have no right to talk to me like that." He snarled.

Pete was practically shaking with rage but not stupid enough to get closer. Anna studied him carefully. Something about Pete really didn't sit well with Anna. That dark look in his eyes from one insult, made her wonder if Juno hadn't been there, that he would have gotten psychically violent with her. What concerned her more, was that she remembered seeing the man with a wife and two sons.

"Am I interrupting something?" Merle asked, coming in and glaring Pete.

The second Pete saw Merle glaring at him, he stumbled backwards and looked at him fearfully. "N-no. We were just talking."

Anna swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Just so you know, Juno is at my side all the times and she's very willing to die for me. She's proved that today and many times before. And if I see you raising a hand against _any_ one, I _will_ let her rip your throat out."

Merle came over to her and handed her a pair of crutches that had been propped against the wall. When Anna used them to get to her feet, Merle put a hand on her back and escorted out of the door. After he helped her off the front porch, he looked down at Juno then back at Anna.

"Was that beater botherin' you?" Merle asked, concerned but trying his damndest to pretend like he wasn't.

Anna stopped and grabbed his arm. "What makes you think he's a woman beater?"

"Not just women, his kids too." Merle said then shrugged. "The way he was lookin' at you. The way his wife and kids behave, growin' up the way I have…well he might as well scream it from the roof tops."

"I was getting that vibe to just now. I swear that if Juno hadn't been there when I called him a dumb shit, he'd have tried to attack me." Anna said glaring towards the clinic. "I almost wish he had, then I could teach that shit a lesson."

"I'll happily do it for you now." Merle said, also glaring back at the clinic.

"No, he wouldn't learn a thing from getting a beat down from you. Not to mention we'd get in trouble with these sensitive people." Anna said as she carefully turned away, wincing as she stepped on her good leg.

While it was no where's near as painful as her left leg, her right leg still hurt and felt a little weak. Merle watched her carefully as they walked slowly towards their house, still concerned. She was impressed with how he had changed. When she'd first met Merle, he'd have just started beating on Pete the second he stepped through that door but despite Anna's harsh words to Pete, he'd just escorted her outside.

"I'll deal with that shit, somehow. Havin' someone like him around could be detrimental to this whole place if things start goin' bad, which it will…eventually." Merle said as he hoovered nearby, apparently concerned that she might topple over when she took a step.

"Why were you there anyways? At the clinic? I thought you'd gone on a supply run with Glenn and Deanna's son?" Anna asked through gritted teeth.

"We did and it was a complete disaster." Merle muttered.

"What happened?" Anna asked as she paused in the park and sat down on a bench.

"Well, that old hag sent us out with some real dip shits and that Noah kid paid for it as did one of her sons." Merle growled. "They're dead."

Anna looked at him shocked then shook her head. "Shit. This was an overall disastrous day."

"Those two men the hag sent with us, shoulda never been there or outside the walls in the first place." Merle said shaking his head. Idiots shot a walker with a grenade attached to his vest, nearly killed all of us right then. The hags kid ended up impaled on some metal, confessed that they had abandoned the people our group replaced. Then that other idiot, saw an opening when we were tryin' to haul that Tara chick through the walkers without gettin' bit, and took off. He'd have drivin' off without us too had Joe Dirt managed to prevent him from doin' so."

Anna laughed as she leaned back against the back of the bench. "Joe Dirt?"

Merle smiled slightly. "Don't know if the woman knows her son is dead yet. We just drove through the gate when yer brother flagged us down and asked that I go check up on you. Said you'd been hurt. That Tara chick should be on her way to see the doc also. You okay?" Merle said from where he stood, inspecting her carefully.

"Yeah, just my legs got injured." Anna said then shook her head. "All because some dumb ass can't shoot. These people basically need to learn everything from us." Merle grunted as he shook his head. "C'mon, I need to find a couch."

* * *

Well? I hope this chapter was passable! I'm trying to develop Merle naturally, so he's changing slowly.

-Shockra


	7. Chapter 7

So I've FINALLY got this out. Sorry, it's been mostly done for a while but I started taking University classes a couple months back and that's taking up a large chunk of my free time. I will finish this, just slowly.

* * *

Anna sat on the front porch of their home, with her back to the corner post as she cleaned her pistol. It was a beautiful day, much like the day before but until like the previous day, she'd be stuck behind the walls with her dog as company.

Yesterday had been an all around shitty day. Not only had the day gone south for the construction crew but for those who'd gone on the supply run. While scavenging a building, the walkers made an appearance, then stupidity of one man had killed one of Deanna's son, and injured Tara. Then the said stupid man, abandoned them in the middle of trouble, and would have driven off without them if Eugene hadn't stopped Nicholas. Then, because Nicholas had left them high and dry, Merle, Glenn and Noah had to divert to a different door and the lost Noah, as he sacrificed himself to save Glenn and Merle.

Merle had gone into great detail, when he told her the story, pacing angrily as he told it. Not surprising, Nicholas had returned with several bruises and probably not just on his body. By the time he was done, it was all Anna could do to prevent him from going and seeking Nicholas out in that moment, to teach him the real meaning of fear-again. Anna totally understood how he felt, one man had managed to kill two people and injured another with his incompetence, and despite Merle's tough bravado, he cared about people. Merle especially didn't like it when young people died, especially when they were as young as Noah.

Anna was broken away from her thoughts by shouts coming from one house over. The one voice sounded like Rick's and the other sounded like Pete, the doctor. Anna carefully got to her feet when she heard a crash from within the building and started hobbling down the steps. Just as Anna reached the corner of Pete's porch the front window as Pete and Rick came flying through it.

"Hey!" Anna shouted as they rolled off the porch onto the grass then down onto the road, grunting and punching the whole way.

Jessie came stumbling out of the house, hands covering her mouth as she cried, clearly in shock. Normally Anna might try get to physically involved, instead, she whistled, and Juno came hurtling across the lawn like a bolt of lightning. Anna gestured towards the men, although it was likely unnecessary, to indicate her target then watched as Juno latched onto Pete's and started thrashing around viciously. Anna hadn't given Juno a specific target just pointed in the general direction of the men, and she wasn't particularly fond of Rick, it just so happened that Pete was on top at that moment, so Juno saw him as the aggressor.

Pete yelled in pain and tried to hit Juno on the head, but she was familiar with human behavior and saw the hit coming and latched on to the more juicy appendage. Rick tried to move in and take advantage of Pete's distraction, but Anna stepped in between him and Pete, and back handed him as hard as she could.

"You've done enough, ass." Anna snarled, earning a black glare from Rick but he just stood up woozily as Pete continued to scream.

"What's going on here?" Deanna demanded glaring holes into Anna.

"I'm just breaking up the fight." Anna said indignantly. "Ask these two morons what's going on?"

Merle broke through the crowd, then let out a loud hoot of laughter. "Officer Happy!? I'll be damned, never thought you had it in you!" Merle said as he waltzed over and put an arm around Rick's shoulders only to have it violently shrugged off. "I wanted to beat the shit outta this turd since we first got here, but she told me I couldn't." Merle said, pointing his thumb towards Anna. "But Rick Grimes has his own rules."

"Shut it, Merle." Anna growled at him as Pete continued to scream.

"Get this damn dog off of me!" He shrieked in a high pitched voice.

"Juno, release. Guard." Anna ordered. "If you take a swing at my dog, she'll tear your throat out, so do yourself a favor and stay _very_ still."

"Rick, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Deanna demanded. To her credit, despite her recent loss, she seemed reasonably in control of her emotions.

"He attacked _me_!" Rick snarled. "Jessie asked him to leave, he tried to intimidate her, so I asked that he leave with me and he attacked me!"

"You have no right." Pete moaned. "She's my wife and that's my house."

"He's right, Rick." Deanna said. "We had this discussion this morning. You need to drop it."

"Or what? You'll kick me out?" Rick laughed derisively. That same crazy man she'd seen in the barn was coming to the surface again, and it made Anna a little uncomfortable.

"You sayin' you knew this turd was beatin' his wife an' kids but its just think none your business?" Merle asked, his amusement turning to anger. "That is you ignore it, it'll go _away_?"

"We aren't discussing this here." Deanna said firmly.

Rick chuckled again as he shook his head. "You still don't get it. None of you do! We know what needs to be done and we do it! You…you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend you like you know when you don't. You wish that things weren't what they are. Well, you want to live? You want his place to stay standing? Your way of doing things, are done. Things don't get better because you…you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the _real_ world."

"The man has a point." Anna said, earning a surprised look from Rick. "Ya'll living in a fantasy here. One day it'll end, and you'll die because you don't know jack 'bout surviving. Lettin' parasites like this jack ass, live within your community, will only make your community go all the faster."

Rick nodded his. "Yes, exactly. We have to control who lives here."

"That has never been more clear to me than it is right now." Deanna said icily.

"Me?" Rick asked derisively. "You mean me?"

"Shut up Rick, you made your point." Anna growled. "You'll only make things worse." Anna turned back to Deanna. "Yes, Rick went about it all wrong but so did you. Even I could see something was wrong here, and I've only been here a short while. Yet you've been here for _years_ and you ain't done _nothing_ for that poor family. Your way is going to destroy this place!"

Deanna's face darkened. "We've done just fine up until now."

"Because someone in here must have a horseshoe shoved up their ass, but luck can only go so far. It runs out eventually."

"I appreciate your input miss Ford but that is enough." Deanna said then looked back at Tobin. "I believe we should take Rick into custody until we have a community meeting."

"Excuse me?" Rick asked, angry.

"Just go with them!" Michonne hissed, startling Rick as he hadn't realized that she was right behind him.

Rick looked passed her to where his son stood with a girl Anna had never actually met before but had seen around town. Carl's face was neutral as he stared back at his father, not at all shocked by his father's behavior.

Rick sighed as he nodded. "Fine but he doesn't get to see his family." Rick said pointing to Pete.

"That isn't your call." Deanna said irritably as she indicated for Tobin to escort Rick.

Rick glared at Pete one last time, but Pete was too preoccupied by the big snarling Belgian Malinois who was watching him like hawk. Finally, Rick turned and brushed passed Tobin, apparently knowing where they were going to take him.

"Call off your dog." Deanna ordered Anna.

Anna looked towards her dog. "Juno, heel."

Like a flash, Juno as standing by her side, looking up at Anna, waiting for her next order. Deanna then indicated for Glenn to go towards Pete.

"Take Pete to the empty house on the other side of the community, patch him up." Deanna said.

"I can patch myself up." Pete growled.

Once Pete was also escorted away, Deanna looked at Michonne and studied her. "Will I have problems with your people?"

Michonne shook her head somberly. "You don't have to worry. We'll all behave." Michonne said confidently.

"Good." Deanna said then turned and walked off with the few remaining residents, most of whom had departed when Rick had been escorted away.

When she was gone, Anna followed Michonne, Glenn, Merle, Carol and Carl as they all walked to the house and went inside. Just at they all had sat down, Abraham and Rosita burst into the house, looking concerned obviously having just heard the news.

"What the hell happened?" Abraham asked as he followed Rosita into the living room. "I heard Rick went ballistic and has been detained."

"A very simplified version of what happened." Anna said dryly.

"Pete was beating his wife, and Rick offered her his help." Carol explained. "She accepted it and when she asked Pete to leave, Rick tried to escort Pete out of the house, but he attacked Rick. Rick fought back."

"The dumb ass shoulda never gone in there a lone, shoulda had back up." Merle said shaking his head. "The shit woulda never done that if I was there. When he see's Rick, he see's mister nice guy, somebody he can possibly beat in a fight. He see's me, he see's an aggressive redneck with a pension for chaos. Someone accustomed to fighting. Wife beaters are one thing; cowards."

"He's right. Rick shoulda never gone in there alone." Abraham agreed.

"Well we can't change what happened." Carol said.

"I heard Rick got pretty beaten up." Rosita said, leaning on the back of the couch behind Anna.

"He did." Glenn confirmed.

"I'll go patch him up." Rosita said as she straightened up. "Abraham will fill me in later."

"We should all go back to what we were doing anyways, they may think we're plotting." Carol said standing up. "We'll talk about this later."

Everyone but Merle and Anna left then and just as Merle opened his mouth to say something, he looked passed her, surprised. When Anna turned to see what Merle was looking at, she saw Juno licking Jessie's offered hand. Merle put his hand on her hip as he bent forward and pecked her on the cheek.

"We'll talk later." He murmured then nodded his head as he walked passed Jessie out the front door.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt." Jessie said, looking up at Anna then at the door that Merle had just exited.

"You didn't interrupt anything." Anna said waving her hand dismissively. "How are you and the kids doing? This whole thing has to be hard on them."

"Ron's angry, although I don't know if he's angry at me or Rick." Jessie sighed. "Maybe both of us. Sam is scared and confused; he doesn't understand what's happening."

"And you?" Anna asked as she indicated for Jessie to take a seat as she sat on the sofa.

Jessie sat down beside Anna as she looked at her hands. "Shocked, confused. On the one hand, the thought that Pete won't be able to hurt me no more, gives me a small spark of hope. On the other, a part of me still loves Pete and he's the father of my boys…"

"I'm going to stop you right there, he might've contributed to their DNA, but he is hardly their father and if you love those boys, you'll cut ties with him." Anna said firmly.

"You're not married or a parent, you couldn't possibly understand." Jessie said, sounding slightly defensive.

"Have you met Merle and Daryl?" Anna asked.

"Passingly, I try to keep my boys away from them." Jessie answered, looking at her confused. "They seem very dangerous; I don't know why Deanna lets them stay here…no offence."

"Merle and Daryl are the product of the exact same situation your boys are in, the only difference being that they were poor, and you were rich. Merle told me he grew up watching his mother get the tar beaten out her. Eventually she turned to alcohol to deal with the pain, then the old man started coming after him when he reached a certain age. Merle started using drugs when he was fourteen, smoking and drinking when he was twelve. He was in juvie six times before they considered him an adult then was in prison twice. He was on his first stint in prison when his mother drank herself unconscious while smoking in bed and burned their house down with her in it."

"My boys will never become that." Jessie said firmly. "I love them."

"Merle said his mother loved him and his brother quite a bit, even tried use her own body to protect them when their old man turned his fists on them. He says she's the only reason he learned to respect women…sort of. From what I've seen, Ron's well on his way to becoming violent like Merle. He needs to get away from Pete, all of you do."

"So, I should just trade Pete for Rick?" Jessie asked sounding slightly high pitched. "I mean look at what he just did, I mean I know that was my fault…"

"Firstly," Anna said as she put a hand gently on Jessie's. "You don't need another man in your life if you don't want to, you need to do what makes _you_ happy. Secondly, you need to stop blaming yourself for things your husband and other people do. Rick shouldn't have been at your house by himself if he wanted to remove Pete and Pete should have never taken a swing and started a fight with Rick. It's their fault not yours."

Both women startled slightly as Carol entered the room and put a hand on top of Anna's whose hand was still on Jessie's. "Take it from someone with experience, Anna's right. I left and went back to Ed so many times, although not as many times as he had put me in the hospital. I went back because I loved him, and I swear I still do but him dying back at the start was probably one of the best things that happened to me. I don't have my little girl anymore, my Sophia, but you still have your boys, fight for them. You're stronger than you think you are, just like I found out that I am strong."

"Thank you, both of you." Jessie said as she wiped the tears from her cheek. "I'm glad I came here. I should go find my son's, explain things to them."

Jessie got up and left the house. When the door clicked shut, Anna looked carefully at Carol. "I had heard about you having a husband, but I hadn't heard about you having daughter. Did she die before or after?"

Carol closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath to compose herself. "You know it's an unspoken rule to not ask people about the people they've lost, even if they bring it up."

Anna looked at her sympathetically. Abraham refused to talk about Ellen and the kids as well, just that they had died. Whenever she'd bring them up, he'd get mad at her.

"I'm sorry." Anna said with considerable feeling. "I've never been able to keep my thoughts to myself. Irritates the hell out of Abe and its what makes Merle both like me and trust me."

Carol smiled slightly then sighed. "She got lost in the woods, Rick and Daryl tried their hardest to find her, but they never did. Hershel…Maggie's father, when we met him, he didn't see walkers as dead just extremely sick people. Whenever a walker would walk onto their property, they'd lock them up in a barn. Then Shane found out, and let them out against both Hershel's and Rick's wishes and we shot them as the came out and then Sophia…what once was my little girl…"

Tears, genuine tears had started flowing as she spoke. Anna had gotten a very distinct _wolf in sheep's clothing_ impression when she had first met her and while she hadn't known her long, that impression hadn't changed. Carol dashed away the tears as she looked up at Anna.

"The reason I came in here…I heard you talking to Jessie. The way you talked with her, it almost sounded like you were speaking from experience, also." Carol said, her voice one again in control of her emotions.

Anna sighed as she looked down at her hands. "His name was Derrick Grainer. Him and I were a thing while I was serving overseas…Abe knew about him, but I ended it with him before we came back. We were both were SEALs but on different unit, assigned to the same base when things went down the shitter. He was the highest ranking officer to survive and it being a military base, that made him king."

"I think I see where this is going." Carol said studying her carefully, probably trying to figure out if Anna was telling the truth or if she was telling her what she thought she wanted to hear. Carol really was very suspicious of people. "Did you end up leaving willingly?"

Anna sighed. "I wish I could say that I stood up for myself or better yet, stood up for the community and got kicked out or fought my way out but I didn't."

"Abraham spoke of it a little, but he didn't seem to know what happened. He just told me that you had been on a base when the walkers rose up, but he didn't seem to know what made you leave." Carol said as she stared at the fire place.

"I guess we haven't really talked about our experiences before we found each other, mostly because Abe avoids the subject like the plague." Carol looked back at Anna inquisitively, but Anna shook her head. "He has his reasons and I get it if he's not ready to talk to me about it, but its not my place to tell anyone what I know."

"Loyalty." Carol said nodding her head. "I get that and respect that. It's the most important thing in this day and age."

"It is." Anna agreed, nodding her head. "Anyways, I don't entirely know what happened. It happened in the night. The only thing I can think of is someone came back infected, didn't tell anyone, died in the night then attacked the others. Our base was completely self-reliant, even had our own power grid but no alarms were ever raised. We had very specific plans to deal with outbreaks within the walls, but I woke to silence. If it wasn't for Juno and another survivor, I'd have never made it out of there alive."

"What happened to the other survivor?" Carol asked eyeing her suspiciously.

"He was bit, but he had activated alarms on the far side of the base, to draw the walkers off so I could get out without having to deal with too many." Anna laughed mirthlessly as she shook her head. "I'd lived on that base with Emilio for a year and I don't even know who he was, yet he went out of his way to save my life."

"Unfortunately, it seems like most of the good people died first." Carol said as she sighed and got to her feet. "Anyways, I better go shmooze some people. Maybe you should make sure Merle doesn't make things worse."

111

Anna groaned as a hand shook her awake. Over the last week, her and Merle had officially started sleeping in the same bed. While they had spent the night, usually in her bed, on several occasions it would never be said that they 'lived together'.

"What?" Anna groaned as she put her pillow on top of her head. The sun had barely begun to peak over the horizon, and she'd become accustomed to sleeping in.

"I want ya to go huntin' with me." Merle said pulling the pillow from her hands.

Anna squinted at him like it was bright in the room, although she could barely make out his shape in the dim light. He stood there, bare chested but had apparently already pulled on a pair of jeans.

"You're a big boy, you don't need me there to keep you safe." Anna said sleepily, smiling up at him cheekily.

Merle pinched her ass, making her giggle as she rolled away from him. "Sue me for wanting your company." Merle growled as he climbed on top of her and wrapped her up in his arms and legs.

Anna chuckled as gently nipped at her neck. "There are better places to get laid than in the woods." Anna said as she closed her eyes as Merle's nips turned into kisses.

"I ain't askin' you to come with me so I can bang ya, we do that most nights." Merle said.

After one more solid grope, Merle rolled back out of bed and bent over, picking up his muscle shirt and red plaid button up. "You comin' or not?"

"I'm pretty sure they won't let us take guns." Anna said sitting up and stretching.

"They got bows and I can set up traps." Merle answered as he tightened his belt.

Anna studied him a moment as she pulled up her own pants. He seemed anxious and looked a bit like a trapped animal. Once she was dressed, Merle opened the door for her then followed her and Juno out of the room and down the stairs. They walked together to the armoury and found the armoury guarded by three men, only one of which Anna recognized.

"You aren't allowed in there." Tobin said tersely, eyeing Merle suspiciously.

"We don't need to go _in_ there, we just want a bow and a full quiver, so we can hunt." Anna said as sweetly as she could as Merle crouched down and scratched Juno's neck, doing his best to ignore the men's glares.

Tobin shifted from one foot to the other as he studied her, then sighed. "Fine, one bow and only five arrows. That should be enough for one hunting trip."

Anna had to bite down on her tongue to prevent her from saying the venomous words she was thinking. Merle glared up at the men and when he slowly stood up, causing them to take a step back. They were clearly terrified of Merle, everybody in this community was. Anna didn't blame him for wanting to escape the walls.

"Then how 'bout you stop pissin' yerselves and get us that bow?" Merle asked, smiling his shit eating grin like he thought he was being funny, but they clearly didn't think so.

After a moment, Tobin turned walked inside the building leaving the two other guards staring at Merle uncertainly as he wrapped his arms around Anna and kissed her neck. When Tobin came back outside, Merle stopped hugging her so she could step forward and take the bow.

"Thank you." Anna said as genuinely sounding as she could.

"Are you sure you don't want someone else to go with, say your brother?" Tobin asked looking suspiciously at Merle.

"Why? To protect Merle from me?" Anna said grinning and making Merle gaff as she slung the bow and arrow across her back. "Merle should be safe with me. Funny how you wanna look out for me because my boyfriend is a big ol' redneck but because Pete was a pretty boy doctor, you didn't care that he beat his family."

"That's not…" One of the guards started but Anna held up hand.

"You keep telling yourself that buddy. C'mon Merle, let's go find some food and hump in the woods." Anna said then grabbed Merle's hand by his middle finger and pulling him along behind her.

111

Merle flew down the highway, looking like a thunder cloud as he clasped the steering tightly. After fifteen minutes of Merle driving down the highway at the cars top speed, he slowed down then turned into a field and rolled to a stop. Instead of immediately exiting the car, he just sat there, staring towards the woods.

"What's wrong Merle?" Anna asked putting a hand onto Merle's arm and looking at him worriedly.

"If I ever loose my shit an' try to hurt you, put the beat down on me. Hell, stab me, shoot me, I don't care, I'll deserve it." Merle growled.

"Is this about what happened yesterday?" Anna asked studying him carefully.

"I knew that shit was happening, I could _see_ it, but I didn't do nothin'. I didn't want to screw up things for you or for my brother. You saw how those guys look at me, and I ain't done nothin'. Imagine if I'd done what Rick had? They wouldn't be _thinking_ 'bout throwing me out, they just would and none of Daryl's friends would care."

"I'd care." Anna said leaning in and kiss Merle's bare shoulder. "And I doubt Pete woulda messed with you."

"Maybe but Jessie woulda never trusted me to help her out. Everybody just see's me as this jackass, my whole life, so I became that jackass. I didn't see the point in tryin' to fight against it." Merle didn't move a muscle as he spoke, just kept staring straight ahead, at the trees.

Anna sighed. "You can't change how people see you, but you can control how you respond to them and to situations. You've already taken great steps in the right direction, Merle."

Merle finally turned his head. "I am who I am, and I don't know if I want to change."

Anna studied him as she put her hand on his inner thigh and leaned her shoulder against his. "Then don't. I like you as you are. If those people can't handle us, then we'll leave. We don't need them. We were doin' just fine on our own."

Merle put his hand on the side of her face and placed his forehead against hers. "But we do. Maybe not necessarily _these_ people, but people. Strength in numbers and all that. We should stay with these people, or at least long enough to find another group. I just need to get some air, and to vent. I'm good."

"Are you sure?" Anna asked softly.

"Let's go bag a deer!" Merle said, ignoring her question as he finally exited the car.

* * *

I hope it was worth the wait. Again sorry.

-Shockra


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone! So I FINALLY have another chapter going. Sorry for the wait

* * *

Later in the day, they released Rick from his prison, trusting Michonne and Abraham to keep him under control. Abe told her later, that him and several of the others had had a conversation with Rick, while he was still in his cell, discussing events and what was to follow. Apparently, if things went south during Deanna's little meeting, they would take Alexandria by force. Abe wasn't a fan of the plan but at the same time, he thought that the community was completely deluded, which Anna completely agreed with, and that Alexandria needed them to survive. They place would likely fall with minimal fuss, most of the residents had yet to even kill a walker and were cowards.

Since Rick's little incident, Merle had gained a shadow and was being followed wherever he went. He wanted to shake his shadow, just to piss them off but Anna told him to ignore them, they'd be a good distraction if need be. If they needed, Merle could more than efficiently distract the Alexandrian's while the rest of their group got ready for their attack.

111

Sometime around mid afternoon, Spencer found her sitting in the park by herself with Juno curled up on the bench beside her, divulging in reading the first book she'd read for leisure in years. He cautiously looked around then walked up to her and looked down at her.

"Why aren't you with your boyfriend?" He asked, sounding slightly sarcastic.

"He's my boyfriend not my shadow." Anna answered, looking up from her book calmly. "We're both independent individuals. We enjoy each others company but do our own thing. What do you need?"

"Gabriel just left the walls, without a gun and completely by himself. I offered him one, but he didn't want it." Spencer answered, looking like he felt guilty.

"Why are you telling me this?" Anna eyed him suspiciously.

"Because I don't think you're all dangerous, or at least dangerous to the community. Your boyfriend and his brother are definitely dangerous to us, maybe Rick but the rest of you are trustworthy."

"You do realize, if you kick out Rick, we'll all leave? Including his baby girl and teenage son?"

"I do realize that. That's why I'm going to try and help you. That's why I'm telling you about Gabriel, his presence can only help your people. If he dies, mom will think…" Spencer faded off as he looked away, apparently saying something he shouldn't have.

"What would she think?" Anna asked, frowning as she studied his face.

Spencer winced as he rubbed the back of his head. "That…that Rick had him killed."

Anna's frown deepened, "Why would he do that?"

"Because…Gabriel warned my parents about your people, called you dangerous. Mom might think that Rick had found out somehow and killed him."

"That's ridiculous! Rick wouldn't be pleased but even he wouldn't have killed Gabriel. He's just a man scared of his own shadow, a toothless viper." Anna closed her book as she sighed and stood up. "If you want me to go rescue Gabriel, you give me a gun. A good gun."

111

Spencer pointed Anna in the last direction he'd seen Gabriel, gave her the best gun in Alexandria's armoury and then Anna went on her way, Juno trotting along behind her. She looked at the road carefully as she walked and managed to find a fresh set of tracks that let off into the woods, just a hundred meters down the road. She followed them as they weaved through the woods for about two hours, following Gabriel's aimless trail and somehow managing to not come across a single walker.

Finally, she heard his voice off in the distance and picked up her pace. When she broke from the cover of the trees, she found Gabriel lifting a rock over his head then watched as he smashed it into the severed head of a walker. She continued to watch as he looked at the walker in horror then vomit on the road beside him.

"What you doing out here, Father?" Anna asked, startling Gabriel so much that he yelped, dropped the rock on his foot then yelped again. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"What are _you_ doing here?" Gabriel said looking at her with an expression Anna couldn't quite interpret as he wiped the remaining vomit from his mouth.

"To find you." Anna replied. "Your turn."

Gabriel looked down a the now dead walker. "To find an answer."

"And did you?" Anna asked as she cocked an eyebrow.

"I-I don't know. Maybe…maybe not." Gabriel looked off into the distance, distress on his face.

"Are you okay, Padre?" Anna said softly as she took a step towards him.

Gabriel looked up at her in surprise. "Why do you care? We hardly know each other. Your friends don't seem to care much."

Anna snorted. "They're more your friends than mine. The only people who mean anything to me is my brother, Merle and maybe his brother." Anna softened as she put her hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "And I think people care more than you realize. Being out here, does something to a person's mind. That's why we all need Alexandria, so we can regain our humanity."

"I some how don't think those Dixon boys ever had humanity." Gabriel said shaking his head sadly.

Anna took a deep breathe, trying to not get angry. "You're too hard on those boys. They grew up in hell. They never had kindness or compassion in their lives, so now they don't know how to react when it comes their way. They need people like you, to be patient them and show compassion to them."

"People like me." Gabriel said laughing, bitterly.

"Whatever you've done, father, is in the past." Anna said studying the man carefully. "You need to forgive yourself, like you say your God does, and move on. Its what you do in the now that matters."

"Isn't that suppose to be my job? Giving people advice?" Juno, who'd been sitting quietly at the side of the road came up to Gabriel and licked his fingers, whining softly.

"Juno's right. You need help too sometimes. Like right now." Anna said smiling softly down at her dog.

"She said that, did she." Gabriel said, smiling for the first time since she'd met the man.

"Yeah, we've been together a long time, in some seriously tense situations." Anna said gently rubbing one of Juno's ears as she stared up at Gabriel. "She's saved my life so many times, and I don't mean just my body. She's kept me sane." Anna chuckled as she looked up at Gabriel. "I guess she not just a war dog to me, but a therapy dog too."

They were quiet for a long time. Finally, Gabriel looked up at Anna. "Thank you. I think I needed to hear what you've just said."

"You're welcome." Anna said with a nod. "I want to give you one more thing to think about. Maybe you're still here because people like Merle and Rick, need you here as a moral compass. To help them remember what is right and what is wrong. To remind them what kindness and compassion looks like."

"They just look at me and see a weakling. They think that kindness and compassion only leads to death." Gabriel said looking at the ground bitterly.

"You're right but you need to prove them wrong." Anna said firmly. "I'm making head way with Merle slowly but maybe you can get through to Rick."

"Maybe." Gabriel looked off into the distance, doubt plain on his face.

"Let's go back." Anna said indicating in the general direction of Alexandria.

111

Anna stood between her brother and Merle as they stood at the back of the crowd, waiting for the town meeting to start. After what Juno had done to Pete, the town had become very uncertain of her, so Anna had opted to leave her at home for the night. With the tension that was around them, it was probably a good idea, although she would have appreciated the extra heat by her legs on this chilly night.

"We are going to start." Deanna finally said, calling everyone's attention to her.

"Can we wait?" Maggie asked as she looked off into the darkness, looking for Rick, who'd yet to show up. "There's people still coming. Glenn, Rick."

"We're going to start." Deanna said firmly, ignoring Maggie's plea. "It's already dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're not dealing with that. We're talking about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he had stolen for the armoury. And we're going to talk about what he said. I'd hope he'd be here."

"She said he's coming." Michonne pointed out.

"I'm sure he'll be here." Carol seconded, doing her best doey-eyed housewife act. "And I'm sure we can work this all out."

"After being out there and then not being how you were out there…" Michonne said. "It can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is, is who you're gonna be…if you're lucky."

When it was obvious that Michonne was done, Carol stood up. "Rick saved my life, over and over. There are terrifying people out there. And he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us need people like him." Carol paused looked over at Deanna momentarily before looking back at the group. "I know what happened last night was scary. And I'm sure he's sorry about that…"

"This is a bunch of shit." Merle muttered quietly to Anna as Carol continued to cater to the crowd.

"Oh, I don't know. Carol has these gullible fools eating from her hand." Anna muttered back, keeping her voice down.

Abraham shushed them then took the break in conversation to put in his two cents. "Simply put…there is vast ocean of shit that you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit…and then some."

Maggie was the next to speak for Rick. She went on about how her father had respected Rick, like that was reason in and of itself of why they should let him stay and played the father angle. She spoke of their group, the ones who'd been with Rick before Alexandria, as family that couldn't be stopped. She ended with stating that the Alexandrian's should want to be apart of that family also.

When Maggie was done, Deanna stepped forward. "Before we hear from anyone else, I—I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency. Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday and he said our new arrivals can't be trusted, that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seems to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said."

Tobin stood up and Anna sneered, she still hadn't forgiven the man for his cowardice and nearly getting her killed.

"I just want to protect my family. You know? I don't even know what that means any more, but if that means got to get rid of…"

Anna was about to make a sneering comment when Rick suddenly stepped into the light, covered in blood carrying a body over his shoulder which he dropped on to the ground beside the fire, revealing it to be a now dead walker. Maggie got up and rushed away, presumably to find someone as Rick huffed and puffed as he stared at the people around the fire.

"There wasn't a guard at the gate." Rick finally said when he'd caught his breath. "It was open."

Deanna turned to her son. "I swear I closed it behind Gabriel and Anna!" Spencer exclaimed.

"Go." Deanna growled irritably.

"I didn't bring it in." Rick started after Spencer had disappeared into the dark. "It got inside on its own. They always will—the dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there…they'll hunt us, they'll find us, and they'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us. But we'll kill _them_. We'll survive, I'll show you how. _We'll_ show you how. You know I was think…I was thinking, how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives?" Anna looked at him suddenly alarmed with his words, shocked that he'd be so blunt, as Merle snorted derisively.

"But I'm not going to do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night." Rick said now turning back to Deanna. "I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out."

Anna suddenly noticed Jessie shaking her head, looking towards the shadows. When Anna turned her head to see what Jessie was looking at, she saw Pete stumble into the firelight with Michonne's katana in hand.

"You're not one of us. You're not one of us!" Pete shouted.

Reg stepped in front of him, hands held out to stop him from walking any further into the circle of people. "Pete, you don't want to do this!" Reg said gently.

"Go to hell! Get away from me!" Pete growled; his eyes locked on Rick.

The moment Pete had first spoken, Merle, Anna and Abraham had slowly circled round the edge of the light towards Pete. Pete was too laser focused on Rick, that he didn't notice them circling. He barely noticed Reg right in front of him.

"Pete, just stop." Reg pleaded.

"Get away from me!" Pete said finally looking at Reg.

"Reg. Reg!" Deanna called, suddenly worried about her husband.

Reg tried to gently shove Pete back. "Pete, stop!"

Pete was getting too irritable to let him continue but no one was near enough to interfere. Anna looked to the far side of Pete where Merle was quietly inching closer, hyper focused on Michonne's katana. He was about two strides away from Pete and with a good distraction, he could close the distance quickly. An idea popped into Anna's head and she grabbed her brothers arm to make him pause and look back t her, then let out a high pitched whistle, the one she used to get Juno's attention over loud sounds.

Pete turned her way, as did everyone else, startled by the pitch and volume, giving Merle the distraction he needed to take those two quick strides. Pete heard Merle running but turned into Merle's rock hard fist then his lights went out and he dropped like as sack potatoes, falling on the arm holding the sword. Abraham rushed forward and quickly scooped up the sword, but Pete wasn't likely to be waking up any time soon

"Ain't none of ya pansy coulda done that." Merle said his posture big and aggressive, obviously riled up by the events.

"Easy, Merle." Anna murmured as she walked up to him and place her hands on his chest. The veins in his neck were still popping from his neck but he stopped glowering and relaxed his stance.

Anna turned, deciding it was her turn to say something. "I think Pete just proved Rick's point for him. We ain't the problem here. We're the answer. We're not asking for you to become cannibals or murderers. Just open your eyes and let us teach you how to survive."

"Maybe they're right." Tobin said, surprising Anna. "If anyone needs to go, its Pete."

Jessie wiped a tear from her cheek. "He was going to kill Rick, maybe even Reg. I could see it in his eye. He's not just a danger to me and my boys but to all of us."

Deanna finally dropped the hand she'd had to her chest as she'd watched the whole thing play out in front of her and grabbed her husband as she walked back to her. Now that he was safely within her reach, she looked at the others.

"I think we need to call it a night. Go home, take a breath and come back to discuss this at a later time. Mister Ford, Mister Rhee; restrain Pete and lock him up. Rick, you've gotten a free pass. Next time, think things through a little more thoroughly."

Anna looked at Glenn, in confusion as him and Abe hauled Pete off between them. He hadn't been there at the beginning of the meeting or even at the beginning of the altercation with Pete. He'd suddenly appeared from the shadows, dirtied and sweaty.

"Rick?" A confused voiced asked from just beyond the firelight.

Anna turned to see a man standing between Daryl and Aaron, and all three of them looking around in confusion as Pete was hauled off and the remainder of the community wandered off.

"This ain't got nothin' to do with you? Does it bro?" Daryl asked, his tone dangerous and angry as he indicated the meeting area.

"He's the one with the bashed up face and you assume its me?" Merle asked angrily, indicating Rick as he walked up behind.

"Merle was actually being well behaved. This was about me. Pete and I got in an altercation when he refused to leave his wife alone."

Daryl smirked slightly then turned and walked off. Merle grunted, clearly still annoyed with his brother as he marched after him.

"Oh boy." Anna said as she exhaled. "I better make sure that don't get out of hand."

"Yeah, you better." Rick agreed as she turned to follow the Dixon boys.

Anna followed in their wake, but with those boy's long legs she soon lost sight of them. She didn't need to be able to see where they were going though, Daryl was likely going home and since they lived in the same house, they shouldn't be hard to find. By the time she made it to the house, all the main floor lights were on and she could hear Merle yelling.

With a sigh, Anna opened the door to see Merle trying to get in Daryl's face as he leaned on the island sipping a beer trying to ignore Merle shouting in his ear. Anna slammed the door, startling both Dixon's slightly.

"What's your damage, Merle? Why are you trying to piss off one of the few people who can put up with you?" Anna said angrily as she crossed her arms and stared peevishly at Merle.

Daryl straightened up and looked at her surprised. "Its fine, I grew up with this jackass. Remember. If I was gonna get sick of him, I'd have done that decades ago."

"Why you takin' his side?" Merle growled.

"I ain't taking his side, I'm just pointing out that you're being an asshole!" Anna growled back making Juno whine anxiously. While she'd take Anna's side Merle decided to get physical, Merle had become her second favorite person. "You can't blame Daryl for jumping to the conclusion that he did, especially with how you're behaving now."

Merle jabbed his finger at her and opened his mouth to reply then stop, scowled at her and Daryl a moment before spinning on his heads and marching up the stairs and slamming their bedroom door after dramatically stomping down the hall.

"He's a bit of a diva, isn't he?" Anna asked as she gazed towards the steps.

Daryl snickered. "One hundred percent." He leaned against the island once more, this time facing towards her. "Why you still with him? I mean I get when it was just the two of you or even after you joined up with my group, but you got more options now. I know Merle ain't been all that kind to his girls in the past."

Anna shrugged as she approached the island then jumped up to sit on it. "He ain't never gotten rough with me. He wants to change which is why he turned away just now." Anna bent closer to Daryl and lowered her voice so that Merle wouldn't hear. "He looks up to you, you know. He wants to change like you have."

Daryl looked up at her surprised. Anna smiled at him soft then looked out of a window.

"You're a good man, Daryl and so is Merle. Life handed you two a terrible hand and Merle's lived it longer, so I think it took him longer to change. Honestly, when I first met Merle, I wasn't planning on staying with him. I was in a bad way, starving, dehydrated and injured. I just wanted to get something resembling healthy, maybe pick up a few survival skills then be on my way. Somewhere along the way, I just fell in love with him and ended up staying."

"You sure it ain't that Stockholm Syndrome?" Daryl asked smirking slightly.

Anna chuckled. "If I was gonna get Stockholm Syndrome, it'd been back when I was still living on base, I was truly a prisoner there."

"Well I'm glad my brothers got you, he needs someone to help keep him level." Daryl dropped his empty into the sink. "G'night." He said as he turned and headed for the stairs.

"Good night, Daryl." Anna answered as she watched him climbed the stairs.

* * *

Again, sorry for the wait! I know its a little shorter. I'll keep plugging along, its just taking me longer as I have a boat load of essay's to write.

-Shockra


	9. Chapter 9

Hey everyone! I'm back! For the month at least. I have had a hard time working my stories because I went back to school. I've literally been doing classes for 12 months straight! I thought I gave myself a 2 month break but somehow I ended up with only 1. I'll try to get out another couple chapters before then, we'll see. I've literal not gamed or read for leisure in the last year so I have many things I want to do. Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

Two days later, Anna walked down the stairs into the kitchen. At the crack of dawn, Merle and Daryl had gone out together to do a bit of hunting, something they now did with some regularity. Anna was exhausted from the night before and still hurting from getting a piece of heavy equipment dropped on her legs, so she'd slept in a little.

There was a single knock at the door, as Anna sat at the island to eat her breakfast, as the door slowly opened and in stepped Glenn. Anna was surprised to see him, smiling slightly as he came in. She had hardly talked with Glenn, the whole group really, since they had first met. Glenn, in particular, seemed to be avoiding her; making Anna wonder if her relationship with Merle had something to do with his distance.

"Good morning." He said as he stopped just passed the doors threshold. "I hope you don't mind me coming in."

"Of course, I don't mind." Anna replied, she thought he'd be looking for some. "What happened to your face?"

Glenn touched his forehead momentarily where a red line ran up into his hairline, a definite bullet graze, among other wounds. "That's partly what I came here for. To ask for your opinion."

Anna cocked an eyebrow, spoon in mouth. Once she had swallowed, she turned to face him more fully. "My opinion? I always figured you hated me. I mean this is probably our first true conversation, especially without anyone present."

Glenn winced as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll admit, my first impression of you wasn't great but then again, when I met Daryl it wasn't great either but he's a good guy." Glenn came the rest of the way into the room and sat on the stool beside her, letting out a long sigh. "Honestly, I let my past with Merle colour my opinion of you. That wasn't fair. Honestly, I should have let my opinion of Abraham colour my opinion of you more than Merle. But really, neither should have. I'm sorry."

Anna shrugged. "Don't worry about it. You won't be the first to judge me by my choice in men, and you won't be the last."

Glenn chuckled. "Abraham said you were unnaturally forgiving."

" _Unnaturally_?" Anna asked, this time both eyebrows shooting up then chuckled. "I also got one hell of a temper."

"Obviously." Glenn said pointing towards her red hair.

"Just like you're obviously a computer whiz."

Glenn chuckled. "Touché."

"So. What can I do you for?"

"I imagine Merle told you what happened back at that warehouse?"

"He did. It was all I could do to keep him from running from the house and pummelling that turd into a grease spot."

Glenn grunted. "It would've saved me from yesterday."

Anna frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I had a talk with Nicholas, yesterday morning. He threatened me but I wasn't fazed, which really pissed him off, I think. I told him he should never step outside the walls again. I told him that if it wasn't for these walls, he would have died a long time ago."

Anna scoffed. "Without a doubt."

"Then, just before nightfall, I saw him climbed over the wall. I followed him. The bastard shot at me while I was following him but missed. I managed to tackle him, but he got away when the walkers showed up and like a coward, he ran off."

"Obviously, you survived that." Anna ground out, getting more pissed by the minute. She we wished Merle had put the beat down on the bastard like he'd wanted.

"Yeah. Got free, tracked Nicholas down and was this close to shooting him." Glenn said clearly irritated as he held up his hand in a fist except his index and thumb, indicating how close he was. "But I didn't. He was so pathetic, begging for his life. I just didn't have the heart."

"Other than to make me mad and to make me want to strangle Nicholas, why are you telling me this?"

"What do you think I should do? Tell Deanna? Or what should I do about Nicholas?"

Anna looked at him confused. "Why ask me? You're close with pretty much everyone else who came with you from Georgia. Why not ask them?"

"Because, I know how they will react." Glenn said tiredly. "And I don't know if I want to do what they'll suggest."

"And you hope I'll tell you something you want to hear?" Anna asked cocking an eyebrow.

Glenn grunted. "No. More like hoping you'll give me a suggestion I haven't thought of. Abraham says you tend to think a little differently than most people. I'm inclined to believe that since, you know—Merle."

Anna smirked slightly. "Think I should start gettin' annoyed with people constantly tellin' me Merle is my shortcoming, my flaw. The thing that makes me unique, unusual." Glenn winced, which made Anna grin. "I'm plenty weird on my own. I don't need no man to make me strange."

Glenn laughed, which made Anna decide that she like him. He was different from the others. Rick and the others seemed so hardened, cold but Glenn, he seemed like such a kind soul, warm. He'd survived this long, out in the wild, so he undoubtedly had grit but somehow, he still managed to keep his humanity. Something most people seemed to lack now days.

"How'd the prick respond after you let him live?" She asked after a moment.

Glenn thought about it for a moment then looked back at Anna. "He seemed thoroughly terrified of me. Not something I'm used to. I'd like to think he's learned his lesson and believes that I'll kill him if it comes to it, but I don't know for sure."

Anna stared at Glenn for a moment as she thought the dilemma through. "You should tell Deanna, maybe they'll punt him out with Pete or just forbade him from leaving Alexandria's walls. I think she has finally seen the light and now she might actually believe you if you tell her that that bastard is basically the reason her son and Noah died, and the reason Tara got hurt."

Glenn nodded. "Not exactly an original thought but it makes me feel a little better."

Anna chuckled. "Hey, sometimes the straightforward way is the best way. Sometimes there is no out of the box solution."

Glenn frowned, "Where's your dog?"

"I was plannin' on taking the day to rest so Merle asked if she could go with him and Daryl." Anna said with a shrug.

"Why?"

"She's become a good hunter and also acts as an early detection system. If there is a walker nearby, she'll alert them before any human could."

"And she obeys Merle?"

"If I'm not there, yeah she'll obey him. Maybe not as blindly as she'd follow me, but she'll do most things." Anna studied Glenn for the moment, then finally asked the question that had been on her mind since the conversation had started. "So, what happened between you and Merle? I mean other than him being obnoxious."

"There's a list, really. Merle has been forced to clean up his drug and alcohol addiction but back at the beginning, he still had a supply and nearly got me and a couple of others that are no longer with us, killed. Although, to be fair, he paid for that with his hand. He was gone for a long time but the first time I saw him again, he pointed a gun at me then kidnapped Maggie and I, beat the crap out of me while I was tied up. Before that, he had injured Michonne then hunted her like an animal."

Anna sighed. "Sorry about that, he mentioned that he'd been…hard on the people he knew."

"It's Merle who should be apologizing, not you. You didn't even know him then." Glenn sighed as he looked at his hands then rubbed his face. "I've moved on from that a long time ago. I don't want to be one of those people who hold onto anger and hate. Besides, Merle does seem…different. Even Daryl is surprised to see how much he's changed. Anyways, thanks." Glenn said then moved towards the door.

"Hey, don't be a stranger." Anna said, smiling softly as she watched Glenn reach for the door.

"Will do."

111

"Hey Abe, lets go for a walk." Anna said leaning against the door frame of the condo him and Rosita had just moved into.

Abraham looked up surprised, then smiled. "Sure Annie. Where to?"

Anna got the sense that she must have been interrupting something as Rosita glared at her unhappily while Abraham seemed overly happy to get out of the room. Unfortunately for Rosita, she would rather help Abraham escape a conversation he didn't want to have, then force him to have whatever conversation his girlfriend wanted to have with him.

"A short walk in the woods would be nice." Anna said straightening up then handed him an assault rifle she had taken from the armoury.

He suddenly looked at her suspiciously as he took the gun from her but didn't pause to follow her when she turned and walked down the steps. They walked down the road in silence, all the way to the gate. It wasn't until the walls were out of sight that the silence was broken.

"So, what do you want to grill me about?" Abraham asked, his eyes constantly roaming as he spoke.

Anna chuckled as she continued to follow him. "Who says I don't just want some bonding time with my brother? We've literally had no time alone for over two years."

"True." Abraham said as he finally stopped and put his back to a tree. "But you had that look."

Anna grinned as she too put her back to a tree, facing Abraham so she could see anything or anyone coming up behind him.

"Okay, so you caught me, but I do want to spend some time with my big brother and one of the two reasons I brought you out here was to get your advice. I've always trusted your opinion and you've always been truthful with me, even when I didn't want to hear it."

"Is this 'bout Merle?" Abraham asked, shocking Anna.

"How did you…?"

"Because I'm your big brother!" Abraham said, cutting her off. "We used to talk about _everything_ , remember? I've learned to read you."

"Okay." Anna said smiling slightly. "So, what exactly was I going to ask you about?"

"You were going to ask whether your history of poor taste in men was continuing and if he is any good for you."

"Wow, two for two." Anna said the chuckled as she shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest as her rifle dangled from her shoulder. "And?"

"Now that you two have been together for a little while, I still don't care for him much, but he seems to care about you. I think he is really trying to treat you right but if he hurts you, I will put a bullet in his knee cap." Abraham sighed. "Honestly Annie, if you're genuinely happy than I can't be against that, even if he is older than me."

"He does make me happy. I feel like I can be myself with him, something I've never experienced before…besides you of course."

"Then why ask me?" Abraham asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"You know what they say, 'love is blind'. I've made mistakes before." Anna stared morosely off into the distance, thinking of her last relationship.

"That you have, and I was very frank 'bout it. Wish I could have met that Grainer prick. He sounded slicker than greased weasel shit on a doorknob." Abraham muttered angrily.

Anna laughed. "You always have a way with words, Abe."

"What was the other question?" Abraham asked, as he smiled broadly.

Anna bit her lip as she considered if she really wanted to get into it with her brother, he was unlikely to be happy with the next topic.

"Uh oh." Abraham said wincing "That look doesn't bode well."

"I wanna talk about Ellen and the kids." Anna said softly.

Abraham's face darkened considerably as he looked away but surprisingly, he didn't seem angry. She'd tried to broach the subject several times before, but he'd just gotten angry with her and refused to say anything other than they were dead.

"Why do you want t know so badly?" Abraham asked. The anger was there but he was keeping in check, along with his anguish. "Pretty much everyone wants to forget all the people they've lost. It's an unspoken rule to not ask about the past."

"If you don't know the person! Abe, I loved them too. Don't I deserve to know what happened to my family?"

Abraham didn't say anything immediately, he just stared at the ground as emotions rapidly progressed from one to the other. After a moment, he put his hands to his face and rubbed it vigorously.

"Its my fault they died." Abraham's tone was pure anguish, and it ripped Anna apart to hear him is such pain. "We-we all survived the initial outbreak, escaped the hardest part of it by camping out in the woods. Eventually Ellen wanted to find a solid roof over our heads, some place the kids would be safe, so we went back into town and found it deserted. The grocery store hadn't been hit to hard yet, so we all holed up in there for a while. We could just walk to a shelf, grab a can and cook it over the fire. Then one day, I'd just stepped outside for a moment, to grab some more firewood. I heard Elle scream—so I ran back inside. This guy was threatening Ellen and the kids, I attacked him. We scuffled. Then I beat him to death with can of tomato soup.

Abraham's face started to redden as his chest heaved, trying desperately to control his emotions. "You should've seen how she looked at me, Annie. She just saw a monster. I dragged the bastard's body out of there as quickly as possible but by the time I got back inside, Elle and the kids were gone. She'd left this long note on a roll of till receipt paper which upon thinking about it, makes me wonder if she was planning on leaving before I killed that bastard. I didn't really read the note, I just ran outside to stop her but…"

Finally, a sob surfaced as he put the heel of his hands to his face and pressed them into his eyes as Anna stepped forward and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. Abraham took a couple deep breaths to calm himself then cleared his throat as he dropped his hands.

"I don't know exactly what happened. I think Elle was putting the luggage into the back of our car. The doors were all open, I-I didn't seem them but there was a lot of blood and-and chunks. I was just about to let the walkers take me too when I heard Eugene's cries for help. He was so pathetic; I don't know why I decided to help him."

Anna finally pulled her brother into a hug as they both finally broke down. "Oh Abe." She sobbed. "It's not your fault."

Abraham hugged her tightly, to the point that she couldn't breath, but Anna wasn't about to tell him to let go. Abraham didn't sob again but Anna could feel his tears running hotly down her neck. She got the feeling that this was the first time he'd let himself feel his loss since it'd happen and while she didn't want to see him in pain, she wanted him to confront his pain before it caught up with him and potentially destroyed him. Finally, after several minutes of holding each other, Abraham let her go and turned away so that she wouldn't see his tears.

Abraham cleared his throat as he took a couple steps away. "I guess I should thank Eugene, he unwittingly saved my life. He gave me the drive to live long enough to see my little sister again." Abraham let out a tired sigh. "I think part of me knew he was lying about the cure but I desperate for something else to live for. Maybe I wasn't as ready to die as I had originally thought."

"And thank God for that." She said softly as she put a hand gently on his shoulder once more. "Abe, I'm not trying to hurt you. I just needed to know. I loved them all so much."

"I know." Now satisfied that he had wiped his tears away, he turned around. "You're right, you deserved to know it just…I just…"

"I know."

The two of the stood there for several long minutes, silently mourning their loss together. They might've remained as such for quite a bit longer if they hadn't been interrupted but four walkers came stumbling towards them. They snapped out of their grieving and went to work to dispatch the walkers. After a quick exchange, the two of them sat down in the dirt, staring at the walkers.

"I was thinking about breaking it off with Rosita." Abraham said after a moment.

Anna looked over at him, shocked. "Why?

"We got together for all the wrong reasons…or at least I did. I thought she was the last woman on earth, and by the time I realized that she wasn't, I was in too deep. Now, we're here, in Alexandria. We're as safe as it gets in this world and she's so young still. She can have anyone, someone who'd actually love her like she deserves."

"So, you don't love her?" She asked as she studied her brothers face.

Abraham shook his head. "No." He said confidently.

"Is there someone else?"

"No and I don't know if I can really fall in love again. The pain I still feel from losing Ellen…the kids, I don't want to feel that again."

"I don't blame you, but we very seldom have a choice in whom we fall in love with." Anna sighed and rested her head on her brother's shoulder. "As for Rosita; if you don't love her, you definitely should break it off with her. Its unfair to her, although she may not agree for the time being. She'll probably be angry."

Abraham sighed. "I know." Suddenly Abraham brightened. "Rick told me this morning that you and Merle were gettin' your own space."

"That'll be great." Anna said lifting her head once more. "It'll be nice to truly get some privacy again. The last time we had that, we were more focused on surviving that building a relationship."

Abraham got up and held out his hand to her. "Alright kid lets go back. We've been gone long enough."

111

"About time you two came back. Rick's calling a meeting, there's something important he needs to discuss." Rosita said. Apparently, she had been waiting for them by the gate.

Abraham frowned. "What's going on?"

"Him and Glenn were driving that bastard Pete, out to the middle of no where's when they saw that kid…uh, Ron I think, running for his life. They pulled over and went running after him. Managed to save the kid but found a massive herd of walkers."

"Is it coming our way?" Anna asked also frowning.

"Not yet but that's all I know. Rick is going to fill us in on the rest." Rosita answered as she indicated for them to follow her.

They followed Rosita down the street to Deanna's house then inside. Once inside, there were already several people starting to gather. Most noticeably, it was their people who were already all there, even Daryl and Merle had already come back from their hunting trip. Daryl was obviously trying to fade into the background, but Merle was never the sort to allow himself to be overlooked.

"There you are!" Merle said with some volume, calling attention to their entrance.

Merle wrapped his arms around Anna as Rosita and Abraham took a seat on one of the couches in Deanna's living room. After Merle stepped back, he leaned back against one of the bookcases then encouraged Anna to lean back against him. When it became clear no one else was going to enter the meeting, Rick started speaking.

"You are all here because we need to discuss what needs to be done about the herd of walkers presently trapped at the bottom of a quarry." Rick started.

"Presently?" Anna asked.

Rick nodded in appreciation, obviously happy that she had noted the subtle clue to a potential danger.

"The entrance to the quarry has been blocked off with two sets of semis but there is a potential for the one semi to slide off the cliff." Rick replied. "Which is why we need move the herd, guide them in a direction that takes them away from here."

"Did no one know about this place?" Carol asked in confusion, still playing her role of concerned housewife.

"We did." A man that Anna had yet to see, replied. "My team…we saw it early on, back when we were on one of those first scouts, finding out what was around here. There was a camp at the bottom. The people, they must have blocked the exits with one of those trucks back when everything started to go bad. They didn't make it. They were all roamers. Maybe a dozen of them."

Maggie craned her neck back a bit, so she could see the new man better. "No one's been back since?"

The man shook his head. "DC, every town worth scavenging are all in the other direction. And I never felt like having a picnic next to the camp that ate itself."

Anna smirked; she was starting to like this guy. From what she'd gathered, this man was probably out scavenging with the other two people Anna had never seen. Those three people were likely the ones most likely to truly understand what it was really like out there. Maybe they could convince the rest of their ignorant community members, that they needed to change. To take the threat that was out there, seriously.

"So, all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound and they're making more sound and drawing more in." Michonne observed.

Rick nodded. "And here we are." He said then looked around the room. "Now what I'm proposing, I know it sounds risky, but walkers are already slipping through the exits. One of the trucks keeping the walkers in, could go off the edge any day now. Maybe after one more hard rain. That exit takes them east. Right at us." Rick paused to let what had said, sink in then continued. "It's not a matter of if it will give way, but when. It's gonna happen. That's why we have to do this soon."

"This is—I don't have another word for it. This is terrifying." Carol said. "All of it. But it doesn't sound like there is another way."

Anna had to admire Carol, she understood how the world perceived her and she used it as a weapon against them. They saw a middle-age housewife who spent her whole life cooking and cleaning for her family. They saw a mother figure. While Anna had never really seen Carol in a dangerous situation, she knew that she was not at all the defenseless stay at home mom that Carol projected. She was the wolf in sheepskin.

"Maybe there is." The man Anna was pretty sure whose name was Carter. "I mean couldn't we just build up the weak spots? I could draw up plans with Reg. I worked with him to build the walls."

"He was a great help and we can definitely assess the situation." Reg agreed.

"So that it can be an even bigger problem later?" Anna asked.

"Construction crew—we can make it safe." Carter persisted.

"Anna is right, even if you could," Rick countered "the sound of the walkers is drawing more and more every day. Building up the exits won't change that."

Finally, Deanna spoke up. "We're gonna do what Rick says, the plan he's going to lay out."

"We're going to have Daryl leading them away." Rick started, taking his queue from Deanna and finally laying out his plan out in more detail.

"Me, too." Sasha volunteered. "I'll take a car, ride next to him. Can't just be him. I'll keep 'em coming, and Daryl keep 'em from getting sloppy."

"If y'all hadn't abandoned my chopper back in Georgia, they would never get distracted." Merle grumbled behind her.

Anna looked back at him awkwardly, "You had a chopper?"

"Yeah but the motorcycle kind." Merle replied smiling down at her.

Anna laughed. "Yeah, I kinda figured."

"I'll go with her." Abraham injected, interrupting their conversation. "It's a long way to white knuckle it solo."

Rick nodded slightly. "We'll have two teams. One on each side of the forest helping manage this thing. We're gonna have a few people on watch from now on. Anna, can you take charge of that?"

"Sure." Anna agreed.

"So that makes Anna, Rosita, Spencer and Holly out. Who's in?"

Almost immediately Michonne said "Me."

Glenn and Maggie had a quiet conversation that Anna couldn't hear but finally Glenn spoke up. "I'm in."

"I'd like to help." Gabriel volunteered.

"No." Rick said firmly. "Who else?"

"Oh, c'mon Rick, give him a chance to help." Anna said, standing up for the father.

"No." Rick said again, obviously not ready forgive Gabriel's part in him nearly getting kicked out of the community. "There has to be more."

"Hell, if Darylina is in this who am I to sit back and just watch." Merle said, earning a glare from his brother.

Rick studied Merle critically. "You'll follow my lead? Not go rogue?"

"Sure, officer happy, I'll follow yer lead. You kept a pizza boy, a beaters wife and two kids alive this long, you gotta have some good instincts."

For the first time since they'd arrived, Carol's façade falter but quickly recovered. Carter didn't seem to notice, though, as he spoke up once more.

"There's gotta be another play." He said, still not convinced. "We just can't control that many."

"Walkers herd up." Rick explained. "They follow a path if somethings drawing them. That's how we'll get 'em all at once."

"So, what? We're supposed to just take your word for it? We're just supposed to fall in line after…"

"After Rick stood up to an abuser?" Anna interrupted. "Should he have done it a little differently? Probably. But unlike the rest of you ostriches, he didn't stick his head in the sand and ignore the problem, he dealt with the problem."

"He waved a gun around!" Carter complained. "He was screaming, pointing it at people."

"Okay now yer just bein' downright dramatic." Anna said, rolling her eyes.

"That enough bickering!" Deanna said, sounding like a scolding mother.

After a moment, the new guy finally spoke up. "I'll do it."

Francine quickly raised her hand. "Me too."

"Whatever you need, I'm in." Tobin added, slightly surprising Anna. He didn't have much in the way of balls.

"Who else?" Deanna asked, staring the group down.

Anna suddenly noticed that Nicholas was there. When she looked at Glenn, she saw him staring Nicholas down shaking his head, trying to discourage him from volunteering but Nicholas ignored Glenn and raised his hand.

"We need to do this. I need to help." Nicholas said.

Rick studied Nicholas, apparently having some idea of what Nicholas had done. "You sure you can handle this?"

"You need people." Nicholas pointed out.

Rick studied the group for a moment but when no one else volunteered he nodded his head. "We'll make this work. We'll make this place safe. Keep our families safe. We will."

"The plan." Carter started. "Go through it again."

"Man, he just said it." Daryl growled.

"Tch, about as absorbent as sieve, this one is." Merle sneered.

"Every part again." Carter said, undeterred by the Dixon's hostility and mocking.

Rick sighed, "Not now, in a moment. That's all for now, I'll work out the finer points of the mission with Reg and Eugene. We'll have another meeting with the volunteers in the morning and start getting everything ready."

* * *

So, I had been speed reading some of my chapters and I noticed some big oopsies, one day I'll go through it and fix them...but I plan on doing that with all of my stories...one day.

-Shockra


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